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Associate Vice President of IFAD’s Strategy and Knowledge Department

Conserve Biodiversity to Tackle Climate Change

By Abdi Ali
Published October 12, 2021

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN agency that focuses on agriculture and people in rural areas, calls for greater investment by governments and development partners in sustainable developmenUnited Nations’ rural development agency, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has warned that unless biodiversity is conserved the world can’t adapt to climate change nor sustainably produce food.

“We are at a critical juncture. If we lose biodiversity, we lose our ability to respond to hunger and climate change,” says Dr Jyotsna Puri, Associate Vice President of IFAD’s Strategy and Knowledge Department. “We know that large-scale agriculture threatens biodiversity. On the other hand, small-scale farmers protect our natural resources. When biodiversity is protected, and ecosystems are healthy and diverse, farmers are more productive and more resilient to climate change.”

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Associate Vice President of IFAD’s Strategy and Knowledge DepartmentDespite standing to suffer immensely from any decline in biodiversity, IFAD, in a report titled Biodiversity Advantage – Thriving with Nature: Biodiversity for Sustainable Livelihoods and Food Systems that outlines the risk to small-scale farmers who make up the majority of the world’s poor and hungry when biodiversity is compromised, argues that agriculture is ironically the number one driver of biodiversity loss, primarily through expansion and intensification.

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Film Featuring World-Renowned Poet Pays Tribute to Rural Women“An estimated 80 percent of the needs of the world’s poor, including their ability to farm and earn incomes, are derived from biological resources. However, biodiversity loss is currently on the rise, with 1 million animal and plant species threatened with extinction, and 31 species declared extinct last year alone,” IFAD says.”Biodiversity supports food production through soil formation, land productivity, pest and disease control, replenishing ground water and pollination services. Biological features such as mangrove forests and coral reefs are barriers that reduce the risk of natural disasters. Improving agricultural biodiversity on small-scale farms results in healthy, productive soils which sequester more carbon, and makes an important cumulative contribution to carbon storage.”

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The IFAD report also outlines how investments in biodiversity contribute to gender equity, women and youth empowerment, and nutrition. Drawing on case studies, the report shows how investments in protecting and enhancing ecosystems can increase benefits to small-scale farmers and the environment.