HOW AGROECOLOGY IS AN UNTAPPED OPPORTUNITY TO TACKLE BIODIVERSITY LOSS, CLIMATE CRISIS, AND DESERTIFICATION

The world faces interlinked crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, land degradation and desertification, and hunger. We need to tackle them together. In a series of infosheets, we pull together the facts and figures on how agroecology – an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable approach to food and farming with nature – can help tackle multiple crises. 

In the face of the devastating impacts of industrial food systems – climate emissions, rising hunger, biodiversity destruction, and declining soil fertility – we urgently need to transform the way we farm and feed ourselves. Agroecology, by being based on diversity and equity, supports biodiversity and promotes climate resilience, while supporting livelihoods. It is the untapped opportunity. And yet it has been systematically sidelined at international summits on land degradation, climate and biodiversity.

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“Industrial food systems are a major root cause of climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification. Governments need to step up and regulate Big Ag and address the harmful incentives locking in industrial agriculture. Biodiverse agroecology offers an unparalleled opportunity to transform food systems. The rights of smallholder producers, indigenous peoples and women – those who produce our food – must be protected.”
Lim Li Ching, IPES-Food expert and Senior Researcher at Third World Network

 

“Policies that promote greater diversity and equity are essential if we want to have any chance at radically transforming food systems in ways that support the protection of biodiversity while at the same time ensuring that everyone is well fed. Because it is based on the principles of diversity and equity, agroecology needs to be at the centre of food systems policy reform.”
Jennifer Clapp, IPES-Food expert

 

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INFOSHEET: CLIMATE CHANGE AND ADAPTATION

 

INFOSHEET: PRESERVING AND RESTORING BIODIVERSITY 

INFOSHEET: DESERTIFICATION AND LAND DEGRADATION