As delegates gather at the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, scientists from the Crop Trust have highlighted the ever-growing challenge of food insecurity in the Global South.

 While COP15 delegates are inheriting a track record of failure, with none of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set in 2010 fully implemented last decade, scientists argue there is still time to reverse the destructive trend that threatens the world’s biodiversity, and humanity.  

As a result, COP15 will see delegates attempt to adopt a new set of goals to halt, and try to reverse, the loss of nature over the next decade through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

 Protecting the diversity for our food systems, a goal which was already recognised in the first draft of the CBD post-2020 global biodiversity framework in Target 10 on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in agriculture, aquaculture and forestry, will be crucial to ensuring greater food security.  

 The Crop Trust believes that crop diversity – the variety of plants used in agriculture – is a prerequisite for future food and nutrition security. Only by safeguarding crop diversity in perpetuity, and making it available for use by researchers, plant breeders and farmers, can we adapt agriculture to the climate crisis, improve livelihoods and feed everyone adequately.

A call to action 

Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director at the Crop Trust commented:

“We have a window of opportunity to protect and make available the foundations of the world’s agriculture, but it is closing, and we must act now. If we do not take action to protect our planet’s biodiversity, we will see greater biodiversity loss – and when biodiversity is lost, it is lost forever. By conserving crop diversity today, we are providing solutions for tomorrow’s agriculture.

“The speedy implementation of the CBD’s post 2020 global biodiversity framework and a renewed commitment to Target 10 would not only help reverse nature’s biodiversity decline but lift millions of people out of a life of hunger and poverty.”

Good practices

 The path to greater food security in Africa starts with the continent’s genebanks, which conserve agricultural biodiversity that is globally unique yet remains understudied and largely untapped. Smallholder farmers, researchers and plant breeders can use these valuable seed repositories to develop and grow crops and varieties that are able to withstand harsh environments and support landscape restoration.

 Countries can play their part in this process by ensuring the active management, recovery and conservation of wild and domesticated species in their genebanks, providing farmers with an insurance policy against climate change and its devastating effects, such as drought, heat, plant diseases and pests.

 When the new biodiversity framework is adopted, it will be crucial to implement activities designed to reach the targets as quickly as possible. This process can be accelerated through the exchange of knowledge on good practices, so that countries know how best to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity in food systems within their own national context.

 One example of good practices is a global initiative on adapting agriculture to climate change by using crop ‘wild relatives’ in plant breeding, which has been implemented through the Crop Trust’s Crop Wild Relatives project and continues to be supported by the Crop Trust through its Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) Project, which is funded by the Government of Norway.

 A highlight of this was the development of a drought tolerant durum wheat variety, named Jabal, which means “mountain” in Arabic, this climate change-resilient variety got its name from one of the farmers taking part in the evaluation program during its development, who said that its distinctive black spikes were like the Atlas Mountains, “strong and proud”.