International Conference on Agrobiodiversity 2024

9 - 12 April 2024. Pokhara, Nepal, International Conference on Agrobiodiversity 2024

The conference is facilitated by the Forest and Farm Facility, a partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Institute for Environment and Development, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and AgriCord.

With agriculture covering the largest portion (46%) of the global land surface area, its ecological health and resilience is critical to human survival. Of 7000 plants historically cultivated for food, today just three crops – rice, wheat and maize – make up over half of global plant-based calories. This poses a significant risk for biodiversity and a major challenge for smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local rural communities who maintain most of the world’s remaining agrobiodiversity.

Increased land degradation and escalating climate risks also pose significant challenges for frontline forest and farm producers. Small farms of less than 2 acres account for some 84 percent of all farms worldwide, producing roughly 35 percent of the world’s food on 12 percent of its agricultural land. These small producers face strong competition for resource rights, technical support and cost-competitiveness from large-scale industrial monocultures.

09/04 @7:30 am CET Session 1: Agrobiodiversity – What it is and why it matters

Agrobiodiversity is what feeds, fuels and furnishes humanity with natural products and ecosystem services (where agriculture is now the largest land use). The session will involve five speakers who presented the importance of agrobiodiversity from an Indigenous perspective. The speakers include:

• Damian Sulumo, CEO, Mviwaarusha, Tanzania: Key constraints to agrobiodiversity conservation from a smallholder perspective – and how to address them.

09/04 @10 am CET ­Session 2: How policies shape agroecology approaches that help to protect and manage agrobiodiversity for better or worse

 

This session will tackle how policies shape agroecology approaches that help to protect and manage agrobiodiversity (for better or for worse) and for meeting people’s needs with sustainable use and benefit-sharing. The speakers include:

• Moderator: Ms Katja Vouri, Agricord
• Keynote Speaker: Oliver Oliveros, Executive Coordinator, Agroecology coalition: Principles and element of Agroecology
• Keynote Speaker: Mario Marino, FAO Technical Officer, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture – Agrobiodiversity, landraces, seed laws

11/04 @5:00 am  Session 3: Traditional knowledge of agroforestry systems and knowledge exchange practices that maintain agrobiodiversity

This session will explore the vital role of traditional knowledge in maintaining and improving agrobiodiversity and agroforestry systems; and the practices, values and principles that underpin vibrant traditional knowledge systems, including exchange and transmission. The speakers include:

• Aii Shatu, Gender and Women Coordinator Mboscuda Cameroon – Traditional knowledge of agrobiodiversity & agroforestry and knowledge exchange practices in Cameroon