FAO warning: “The biodiversity underpinning our food systems is disappearing”

25 Feb 2019 --- Biodiversity that is vital for the sustainability of agricultural and the world’s food systems is in rapid decline and presents a growing threat to food security and supply. The first-ever global report on the state of biodiversity that underpins our food systems, livelihoods, health and the environment has been published by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – and it makes for grim reading. It points to the fact that mainly plants, fish and mammals are decreasing in abundance.

In a call for solutions, the UN body notes that the food industry could explore opportunities for markets specifically for biodiversity-friendly products, while consumers can help reduce pressures on biodiversity for food and agriculture by choosing sustainably grown products, buying from farmers’ markets, or boycotting foods seen as unsustainable. In several countries, so-called “citizen scientists” play an important role in monitoring biodiversity for food and agriculture, the report notes.

There is also decreased plant diversity in farmers’ fields, rising numbers of livestock breeds at risk of extinction and the increases in the proportion of overfished fish stocks, while vital crop pollinators and key ecosystems are rapidly disappearing. 

Source: FAO, The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and AgricultureThe report – The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture – is calling on global governments and international communities to step up their efforts to tackle biodiversity loss. The main point the report highlights is that once lost, biodiversity for food and agriculture (i.e. all the species that support our food systems and sustain the people who grow and/or provide our food) – cannot be recovered.

Policymakers, producer organizations, consumers, the private sector and civil society organizations across food and agriculture and environment sectors, are being urged to work together to reverse the trends that are leading to biodiversity loss – and fast because the foundation of the world’s food system is under threat. 

The increasing loss of biodiversity for food and agriculture puts food security and nutrition at risk. The leading causes of biodiversity loss, according to most countries, include changes in land and water use and management, followed by pollution, overexploitation and overharvesting, climate change and population growth and urbanization.

In the case of associated biodiversity (the myriad of organisms that support food production through ecosystem services), while all regions report habitat alteration and loss as major threats, other key drivers vary across regions. These are overexploitation, hunting and poaching in Africa; deforestation, changes in land use and intensified agriculture in Europe and Central Asia; overexploitation, pests, diseases and invasive species in Latin America and the Caribbean; overexploitation in the Near East and North Africa and deforestation in Asia.

Slow Food, an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking, is calling for immediate action in the wake of the FAO report and stresses that it’s been fighting and advocating for the need to save biodiversity for several years. 

“The current industrial model of agriculture underpinning the global food system is destroying itself, and us with it. The report provides some alarming details of the irreversible and catastrophic damage being done to the planet’s biodiversity, specifically that which sustains our food system, outlining our reliance on a small group of species, the destruction of habitat and land-clearing and the unsustainable use of resources as key factors in the rapid loss of biodiversity that is tearing apart the living systems that feed the planet,” the organization says. 

“Time is running out, we must turn things around within the next 10 years or risk a total and irreversible collapse. This relies on combining modern knowledge and technology with its traditional counterparts, and redefining our approach to agriculture and food production, placing the preservation of biodiversity and ecology on equal footing with profit and productivity. On every level, from small-scale farmers and producers to the highest levels of government, and through regulations like those in the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), must be geared towards a food system that protects biodiversity.”

Source: FAO, The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and AgricultureThe report, prepared by FAO under the guidance of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, is based on information provided specifically for this report by 91 countries and the analysis of the latest global data.

Of some 6,000 plant species cultivated for food, fewer than 200 contribute substantially to global food output and just nine account for 66 percent of total crop production. The world’s livestock production is based on around 40 animal species, with only a handful providing the vast majority of meat, milk and eggs, according to the report. Of the 7,745 local (occurring in one country) breeds of livestock reported globally, 26 percent are at risk of extinction, while almost a third of fish stocks are overfished. In fact more than half have reached their sustainable limit.

As an example, earlier this month lobby groups called for an end to overfishing in the North East Atlantic following the publication of an overfishing league table listing the worst offending EU countries, with Sweden topping the list followed by the UK. 

Information from the 91 reporting countries reveals that wild food species and many species that contribute to ecosystem services that are vital to food and agriculture, including pollinators, soil organisms and natural enemies of pests, are also rapidly disappearing.

“Biodiversity is critical for safeguarding global food security, underpinning healthy and nutritious diets, improving rural livelihoods and enhancing the resilience of people and communities. We need to use biodiversity in a sustainable way so that we can better respond to rising climate change challenges and produce food in a way that doesn’t harm our environment,” says FAO’s Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

“Less biodiversity means that plants and animals are more vulnerable to pests and diseases. Compounded by our reliance on fewer and fewer species to feed ourselves, the increasing loss of biodiversity for food and agriculture puts food security and nutrition at risk,” he adds. Countries report that 24 percent of almost 4,000 wild food species – mainly plants, fish and mammals – are decreasing in abundance, but the proportion of wild foods in decline is likely to be even greater as the state of more than half of the reported wild food species is unknown. The largest number of wild food species in decline appear in countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by Asia-Pacific and Africa, the report notes. However, this could be a result of wild food species being more studied and/or reported on in these countries than in others.

Associated biodiversity species are also under severe threat, including birds, bats and insects that help control pests and diseases, soil biodiversity, while wild pollinators – such as bees, butterflies, bats and birds. Meanwhile, key ecosystems that deliver numerous services essential to food and agriculture such as forests, rangelands, mangroves, seagrass meadows, coral reefs and wetlands in general, are also rapidly declining. 

Biodiversity-friendly practices are on the rise 
The report highlights a growing interest in biodiversity-friendly practices and approaches. In fact 80 percent of the 91 countries indicate using one or more biodiversity-friendly practices and approaches such as organic agriculture, integrated pest management, conservation agriculture, sustainable soil management, agroecology, sustainable forest management, agroforestry, diversification practices in aquaculture, ecosystem approach to fisheries and ecosystem restoration.

Conservation efforts, both on-site (e.g. protected areas, on-farm management) and off-site (e.g. gene banks, zoos, culture collections, botanic gardens) are also increasing globally, although levels of coverage and protection are often inadequate.

Despite these moves much more needs to be done to stop the loss of biodiversity for food and agriculture, the report warns. It also points to the often “inadequate or insufficient” legal, policy and institutional frameworks put in place by most countries, emphasizing the need for more robust frameworks, the creation of incentives and benefit-sharing measures, more work to promote pro-biodiversity initiatives and address the core drivers of biodiversity loss.

Although the FAO report is the first of its kind on global biodiversity, there have been several reports recently on the themes of global food security and the rapid onset of climate change and its impact on sustainable food systems as well as sector-specific reports on deforestation and the overexploitation. 

Climate change is a hot topic within the food industry with many key players setting ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, cut down on waste, use energy efficiently and streamline strategies to tackle what is a profound challenge with direct implications on food safety, supply chains and raw materials. The notion of how big business will contribute to the fight against climate change continues to be a key area of debate following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued its starkest warnings in October 2018. 

The study says that a rise of more than 1.5°C is risking the plant’s livability and this could be exceeded by 2030 unless drastic steps are taken now. This requires “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”, according to the report from the world's leading body of climate change experts. 

Shortly after this report, new analysis involving the University of Oxford and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany (among other researchers) claimed that dietary changes are needed to slow the impact of climate change, including a dramatic reduction in meat consumption.

Another striking report branded global food systems “broken” in November 2018. An in-depth report from the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) said food systems are failing and urgently need to be turned around to avoid catastrophic climate change. 

And earlier this month, a report emerged dramatic decline in insect populations must force the agricultural sector to look at its own practices.

By Gaynor Selby