Our Mission

"Our Mission is inline with CBD's mission but unlike the CBD we work at regional level and you can read the mission of CBD below:"

Nutrition

Nutrition and biodiversity converge to a common path leading to food security and sustainable development. They feature directly in the Millennium Development Goals to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger (Goal 1) and to ensure environmental sustainability (Goal 7).

The alarming pace of food biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation makes a compelling case for re-examining food systems and diets. Globalization, industrial agriculture, population increases and urbanization have changed patterns of food production and consumption in ways that profoundly affect ecosystems and human diets.

Presently, one billion people suffer from hunger and another two billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Simplification of diets, low in variety but high in energy, contributes to the escalating problems of obesity and chronic disease, which are increasingly found alongside micronutrient deficiencies and undernourishment, particularly in poor areas of the developing world.

Biodiversity plays a key role in ensuring dietary adequacy; nutrients in varieties / cultivars / breeds of the same food can differ dramatically

Biodiversity plays a key role in ensuring dietary adequacy, because nutrient contents between foods and among varieties/cultivars/breeds of the same food can differ dramatically.

FAO, together with the Bioversity International, is leading the "Cross-cutting Initiative on Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition", under the umbrella of the Convention of Biological Diversity.

The Initiative identifies agricultural biodiversity as a priority for improving nutrition and health especially of the rural and urban poor, and provides the framework for sustainable diets.

Protected areas

Protected areas are an effective tool for conserving species and ecosystems. They contribute substantially to the long-term provisioning of services and the conservation of habitats and ecosystems, which are crucial for sustaining livelihoods at local, regional and global scales.

Protected areas are crucial for the conservation of terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments.

Protected areas are crucial for the conservation of terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. Their management and planning should involve all stakeholders, in particular the rural populations surrounding them who are most affected by their presence and should benefit from the alternative sources of employment and economic activities they potentially provide.

Within its mandate of protecting forests and fisheries stocks and conserving biodiversity, FAO supports countries in the design and management of protected areas and provides technical guidance for the formulation of adequate policies. FAO promotes the ecosystem approach to natural resources management, contributing to the conservation of terrestrial, freshwater, marine and cultural biodiversity.

Thanks to FAO's global expertise and knowledge in forestry, fisheries and agriculture, best practice solutions and innovative approaches to major challenges in protected area management such as the overexploitation of species and the impacts of climate change can be identified, and adapted to regional or national circumstances.

FAO increasingly works in partnerships, for the best possible assistance to countries.

Ecosystem approach

The ecosystem approach is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. It is based on the application of appropriate scientific methodologies focused on levels of biological organization which encompass the essential processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment, and recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of ecosystems.

An ecosystem approach to agriculture and natural resource management explicitly identifies opportunities and trade-offs. It can preserve or increase the capacity of an ecosystem to produce benefits for the society, fairly apportions benefits and costs, and is sustainable over the longer-term. The ecosystem approach to agriculture requires adjustments in institutional and governance arrangements that ensure informed, balanced, transparent and legitimate decision making in relation to trade-offs and stakeholder participation.

The ecosystem approach is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way.

Ecosystem approaches are applied to specific elements in FAO’s work, and most notably, through its work:

• in achieving sustainable crop production intensification through an ecosystem approach and an enabling environment, and capturing efficiency through ecosystem services and management;
• as part of the One Health concept and in management of natural resources, including animal genetic resources in livestock production;
• in both marine fisheries and aquaculture in supporting fisheries resources and sustainable use and production;
• in forests, with work on technical, policy and legal support to ecosystem approaches.
• as a key strategy to reconcile food security and the environmental conservation through programmes such as: (i) the Multi-Year Programme of Work of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; (ii) Sustainable Land Management for enhancing land-derived goods and services; and (iii) the multi-sectoral organic agriculture programme that assists countries to optimize their performance in producing, processing and marketing according to existing biophysical and socio-economic resources.

Gender

All people worldwide make use of plant and animal biological resources. Rural men and women, however, are often entirely dependent on the environment. Frequently among the world’s most poor and vulnerable groups, their livelihoods are intimately intertwined with the utilization of biological variety. In this respect, any change in biodiversity patterns will first and foremost affect the viability of rural survival. Preserving agricultural biodiversity is hence crucial for sustainable rural development, food security, and poverty alleviation. All at the same time the fight against hunger also depends on paying greater attention to the complexities of agricultural systems and to the different roles and knowledge systems that men and women hold within them.

FAO is developing activities to enhance rural people’s food security and promote sustainable management of agro-biodiversity by strengthening the capacity of institutions in the agricultural sector to apply approaches which recognize men and women farmers' differential needs, concerns and knowledge in their programmes and policies.

To preserve agricultural biodiversity we need to greater attention to the different roles and knowledge systems that men and women hold within them.

The main activities include training on how to record and document local knowledge and how to use gender analysis and participatory methods for both research and action processes, technical assistance for research on gender-based differences in farmer's knowledge related to agro-biodiversity conservation and management (e.g. use of medicinal plants, local seed management etc.), as well as technical assistance to enhance communication and the exchange of information based on local knowledge systems in agriculture within and between communities, or with institutions that interact with farmers and with policy-makers.

Indigenous people

In developed and developing countries all over the world, indigenous farmers and communities hold traditional knowledge, expertise, skills and practices related to environmental management and food security as well as to agricultural production and diversity.

Traditional farming, fishing, pastoralism/herding, foraging and forestry are based on long established knowledge systems and practices that help to ensure food and agricultural diversity, valuable landscape and seascape features, livelihoods and food security. For millennia, these have provided rural communities with the necessary resilience to counter challenges and ensure survival. However, traditional livelihoods and indigenous plant varieties, landraces and animal breeds are now increasingly endangered by factors such as large-scale commercialization of agriculture, population dynamics, politico-economic discrimination, land-use/cover changes and the impacts of climate change.

For millennia, traditional knowledge has provided rural communities with the necessary resilience to counter challenges and ensure survival.

FAO is developing innovative projects that support indigenous communities and the use of traditional knowledge to promote rural development, gender equity, conservation of biocultural diversity, and sustainable management of agro-ecosystems, among others. At the same time, FAO's approach is to manage the risks to food security and agriculture that result from natural and human-induced disasters, such as climate change, soaring food prices and land dispossession.

FAO is also promoting international and interdisciplinary collaboration to strengthen the interface between traditional knowledge and cutting-edge science and technology, to help maintain and enhance the world’s food and agricultural diversity and sustainability.

Biosecurity

Biosecurity encompasses policy and regulatory frameworks to manage risks associated with agriculture and food production. This includes, for example, the introduction and release of Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) and Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMOs) and their derived products, the introduction and spread of invasive alien species, alien genotypes and plant pests, animal pests, diseases and zoonoses (diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans).

In view of a number of developments, including globalization, the rapid increase in transport and trade and technological progress, national and international frameworks and standards need to be developed and strengthened in order to regulate, manage and control biosecurity.

Adequate policy and regulatory responses need to be developed to address some of the risks associated with agriculture and food production.

Countries are increasingly taking a holistic view and are combining these regulatory activities. This trend is expected to continue and should be matched by FAO, building on its already significant range of activities and outputs that address biosecurity, including international instruments, biosafety in relation to LMOs and GMOs, biosecurity in relation to invasive alien species and closely associated concerns for food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry.

FAO plays an important role in biosecurity through the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). Technical support is provided through the IPPC Secretariat for the national implementation of both the Convention itself and International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) which aim to prevent the introduction and spread of pests of plants and plant products and to promote phytosanitary measures for their control.