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Agriculture is expected to cover an increasing world food demand for 8.5 billion people in 2030. The world is projected to reach peak agricultural land area within the next 20 years, yet food production will continue rising beyond 2050 through intensification.
Agriculture is a vital human activity that deeply impacts, but also deeply relies on Nature. The shift to more sustainable food systems and agricultural practices is a building block to achieve more sustainable and resilient societies.
Agriculture is the leading driver of global land-use change[1] and biodiversity loss. However, agricultural systems are – at their core – modified ecological systems that remain strongly dependent on nature. The relative stability of these systems and the benefits they provide, directly and indirectly, to billions of people depends on biodiversity. Therefore, the agriculture-conservation nexus is also one of mutual dependence.
IUCN is developing a new engagement in agriculture, guided by the vision of a future where biodiversity is restored and conserved on farms and in agricultural landscapes as nature-based solutions to global challenges and human and societal needs, contributing to the transition towards sustainable and resilient societies.
The goal of this programmatic engagement in is that governments, businesses and land managers (including farming communities) implement a common vision to protect and restore biodiversity on farms and in agricultural landscapes, including the ecosystems on which agriculture depends.
This goal is consistent with the impact indicators of IUCN’s 2021- 2024 programme. It draws from targets under SDG Goal 2, to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”, as well as elements from other related SDGs (3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15& 17) and the post 2020 biodiversity framework. It contributes to the implementation of the Paris agreement. The goal will contribute to:
- Improving food security, healthy diets and livelihoods of agricultural communities and gender equality,
- Pursuing land degradation neutrality and enhancing soil and wider ecosystem health,
- Safeguarding and fairly managing water cycles,
- Building climate change resilience and increasing carbon sinks,
- Enhancing the viability of supply chains with reduced deforestation and other land use changes,
- Conserving agrobiodiversity and wild relatives, biocultural diversity and traditional agricultural knowledge,
- Sustaining and enhancing the role for agroecology in building sustainable rural landscapes and communities, as part of integrated landscape approaches.
- Integrating biodiversity and climate change considerations into agricultural policies.
[1] IPBES, ‘Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services | IPBES’, 2019 <https://ipbes.net/global-assessment> [accessed 2 April 2020].
