Credits and Contents (97 Kb)Return to the UKabc Home Page • Uploaded 10 January 2002
Environment Liaison Centre International Nairobi, Kenya
in collaboration with: Chen Aiguo, Johann Baumgaertner, Harold Brookfield, Pamela Cunneyworth, Connal Eardley, Edwin Gwasi, Devra Jarvis, Wanja Kinuthia, Nina Ladonina, Jeffrey McNeely, Patrick Mulvany, Hannah Nadel, Julia Ndungu-Skilton, Ed Rege, Mike Swift, and Ana Milena Varela
UNEP, UNDP, GEF
Produced with the support of the UNEP/UNDP GEF Biodiversity Planning Support Programme
Final version will be published at CBD/COP 6 in April 2002
Also see "Knowing Agricultural Biodiversity"
Principles for Conserving Farm Genetic Resources
Principles for Conserving Agricultural Ecosystem Services
Principles for Conserving Biodiverse Agricultural Landscapes
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Paper (1.3 Mb)
Source: http://www.unep.org/bpsp/Agrobiodiversity/agrobiodiversity%20thematic/agbioguide.pdf
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AIA Advance Informed Agreement
BPSP Biodiversity Planning Support Program
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
CBG/CBOs Community based groups/community based organizations
DAD-IS Domestic Animal Diversity Information System
FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation
GEF Global Environment Facility
GM Genetically-Modified
GTZ (Deutsche) Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
IFOAM International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements
IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute
ILEIA Information on Low External Input and Sustainable Agricul-ture
IPGRI International Plant Genetics Resources Institute
IPR Intellectual Property Rights
ISFM Integrated Soil Fertility Management
ISNAR International Service for National Agricultural Research
ITDG Intermediate Technology Development Group
IU International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources (now called International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture)
IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature
LEISA Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture
NBSAP National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
PLEC People, Land Management and Environmental Change
TRIPs Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property rights
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
WCMC World Conservation Monitoring Centre
WTO World Trade Organisation
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Introduction, Structure of the Guide and Reporting Conventions (97 Kb)
The Biodiversity Planning Support Programme (BPSP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has a mandate to provide assistance to national biodiversity planners as they develop and implement their national biodiversity strategy and action plans (NBSAPs) or equivalent plans, programmes, and policies. As part of the overall Programme, UNEP holds responsibility for identifying best practices, guidelines, and other tools to enhance the biodiversity planning process. In particular, these guidelines are being developed for areas that have been identified by biodiversity planning practitio-ners as "poorly defined emerging issues".
Agricultural biodiversity was not originally considered to be part of the biodiversity that was going to be conserved by the global initiative that became the Convention on Biological Diversity. But once the Convention was forged, and appropriate targets for the programme of work were discussed, there was a strong outcry, particularly from developing countries, to incor-porate agricultural concerns into the work of the Convention. Not only do agricultural sys-tems impact heavily on the conservation of wild biodiversity, but it has been shown in mul-tiple ways that farming landscapes host a large share of the planet’s biodiversity, and much that is extremely critical to human livelihoods.
In 1996, the Third Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity estab-lished a programme of work on Agricultural Biological Diversity (Decision III/11). Agricul-tural biodiversity was defined to include all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture. This includes: genetic resources of harvested crop varieties, live-stock breeds, fish species and non-domesticated ("wild") resources within field, forest, range-land and aquatic ecosystems; biological diversity that provides ecological services such as nutrient cycling, pest and disease regulation, maintenance of local wildlife, watershed pro-tection, erosion control, climate regulation, and carbon sequestration. This range of topics was then further elaborated at the Fifth Conference of Parties in Nairobi in the year 2000, with Decision V/5. This means, at a minimum, that the topic will need to be addressed in national reports and in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.
Unfortunately, for all its recent attention, agricultural biodiversity still falls under the category of being a "poorly defined emerging issue". In general, countries have taken agricultural biodiversity to refer primarily to crop genetic resources, as this is where most of the conservation efforts have been focused. Even here, interventions to assure conservation are not evident or simple; as has been noted (Thies 2000), many other aspects of biodiversity such as forests or wildlife are threatened by overuse, yet agricultural biodiversity and traditional knowledge of farm genetic resources is threatened because it risks to fall into disuse, to be supplanted by modern technologies. How to increase that use while assuring the custodians of agricultural biodiversity receive appropriate benefits remains a thorny problem. At the same time, other aspects of agricultural biodiversity – such as soil biodiversity, and wild biodiversity in farming landscapes– are even much poorer documente d and understood. Many aspects relate to the extremely numerous but taxonomically least studied aspects of flora and fauna: soil microorganisms, insect pests and natural enemies, and pollinators. As national biodiversity planners are asked to incorporate agricultural biodiversity into their work and plans, we must rec-ognize that there is no definitive, authoritative guide to agricultural biodiversity in all its manifesta-tions, and little experience with how it interacts with policy decisions.
That said, agricultural biodiversity conservation has the potential to be one of the leading lights of the Convention on Biological Diversity. With many other areas of biodiversity conservation, conflicts over resource use abound, and it seems difficult even for environmental econo-mists to show us, convincingly, that conservation can mean economic benefits, at least in the short run. In agricultural systems, however, there is ample room for "win-win" solutions: for example, less use of pesticides which decrease biodiversity, in exchange for low-input sustainable agriculture with reduced input costs for farmers. Or, conservation of pollinators in hedgerows, leading to increased crop yields. Or, systematic and sustainable exploitation of wild biodiversity, in farm settings such as game ranches.
In the words of one of our expert reviewers (Knowledge Systems); "There is a danger in Biodiversity Planning to focus on the measures needed to protect biodiversity and ensure sustainable use and benefit sharing. In work on agricultural biodiversity, it is not so much its ‘protection’ as its ‘development’ through diverse management practices, that becomes key. Indeed, it can be said that agricultural biodiversity is the product of a healthy sustainable agroecological production system, as well as being its base component. So we are dealing with a highly dynamic system in which people are at the centre."
With this in mind, we have undertaken the drafting of this guide to existing best practices in managing agricultural resources for biodiversity conservation, based on the best available information in late 2001. The guide adopts a structure for looking at agricultural biodiversity that has emerged from expert meetings and the CBD’s liaison group on agricultural biodiversity: of farm genetic resources, ecosystem services, knowledge systems, and landscape level is-sues. The case studies touch on measures and experiences to conserve these aspects of agricultural biodiversity in Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States region, Yunnan province in China, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, South Af-rica, India, the Philippines and Vietnam. Case studies were reviewed and additional infor-mation provided by scientific experts in the fields of pollination biology, soil biodiversity, biodiversity that migitates pests and diseases, crop genetic resources, an imal genetic re-sources, traditional knowledge, wild biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, and landscape level considerations of agricultural biodiversity.
Case study authors, expert reviewers and other resource persons were brought together in a workshop held in Nairobi in July 2001, to identify a set of principles, practices and tools of mutual benefit to sustainable agriculture and to biodiversity conservation planning. This guide has been developed on the basis of the key priniciples and practices identified at the workshop, which have then been linked to existing tools and references to help National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Planners to incorporate these concepts in their plans and initiatives.
This guide has been structured in three parts. First, we look at principles relevant to the conservation of agricultural genetic resources, which are largely managed on-farm (with the exception of wild relatives of crops). Moving out further from a farm field focus, we consider principles relevant to the conservation of ecological services, which generally require some wild habitat in farm landscapes. And finally, we examine the conservation of wild biodiversity in agricultural areas, and the need to "biodiversify" agricultural landscapes.
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Introduction, Structure of the Guide and Reporting Conventions (97 Kb)
Principles for Conserving Farm Genetic Resources
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for Conserving Farm Genetic Resources (519 Kb)
Key principles for the conservation of farm genetic resources are:
1.1 Baseline information needs to be strengthened.
1.2 It is important to identify ecosystem management practices and associated tech-niques and policies to promote positive and mitigate negative impacts on farm genetic re-sources.
1.3 Need to develop linkages between agricultural genetic conservation and use and benefit sharing, as agricultural genetic biodiversity resources are essential to global agricul-tural productivity.
1.4 Strengthening community management of agricultural resources increases plants and animal diversity essential for secure livelihoods.
1.5 Develop appropriate partnerships.
1.6 The private sector should take responsibility for ensuring that their activities support the conservation of agricultural genetic resources.
1.7 Issues of access, benefit sharing and intellectual property rights are central to the NBSAP process so planners need to carefully consider the position of various stakeholders.
1.8 Recent advances in biotechnology have profound implications for agricultural ge-netic resources and these need to be addressed by the NBSAP process.
1.9 Expanding global trade increases access to biodiversity for countries, but the poten-tial hazards to agricultural genetic resources need to be addressed by the NBSAP process.
Principles for Conserving Agricultural Ecosystem Services
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for Conserving Agricultural Ecosystem Services (630 Kb)
Key prinicples for the conservation of agricultural ecosystem services are:
2.1 It is important that everyone- farmers and policymakers both- understand the con-cept that agricultural ecosystem services can sustain themselves with proper design.
2.2 Ecosystem services have the potential to reduce both off-site inputs and on- and off-site pollution.
2.3 Promoting identification and taxonomy is necessary.
2.4 Assessment of risks over time, relative dependence, and sustainable livelihoods are critical issues for agricultural biodiversity, and need to be in appropriate balance.
2.5. Policy makers are biased toward large scale plans, whereas much of agricultural biodiversity is fine-scaled.
2.6 Costs and benefits of agricultural biodiversity goods and services need to be identified.
2.7 Costs and benefits need to be distributed on the basis of careful assessment of possible trade-offs, paying attention to incentives and subsidies, and making them appropriate.
2.8 Creating popular awareness and education is necessary for change.
2.9 It is necessary to enhance capacity for adaptation to change.
Principles for Conserving Biodiverse Agricultural Landscapes
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for Conserving Biodiverse Agricultural Landscapes (88 Kb)
Key principles for the conservation of landscape level diversity, wild biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, and knowledge systems for agricultural biodiversity are:
3.1 Protected areas are desirable near farming areas, ranch land and fisheries.
3.2 Farm resource management practices can be modified to enhance habitat quality in and around farmlands.
3.3 Conservation and management of biodiversity will be optimized by varying degrees of agricultural intensification on a landscape. Thus, NBSAPs should promote policies that will maintain the diversity of land use across the landscape.
3.4 NBSAP planners need to recognize and utilize traditional practices as a component of the knowledge system that support conservation and management of agricultural biodiversity.
3.5 NBSAP planning needs to take account of the fact that different ecologic and socio-economic differences between farmers make it easier for some to manage biodiversity than others and that these difference are widening, thus new instruments for conservation may be needed.
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Cited and Acronyms (17 Kb)