South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE)

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Biodiversity for food security
Published: The Rising Nepal, 17 October 2004
By: Kamalesh Adhikari

Nearly 850 million people in the world go to bed hungry every night, mainly in Africa and Asia. Appallingly, the number of undernourished people in the world is climbing by five million a year. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in its report on The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003, warns that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving world hunger by 2015 is looking increasingly remote. The report has called the latest figures on food insecurity in many parts of the world a ‘setback in the war against hunger’. There are many reasons for this. One among many reasons is “our irrational exploitation of and unwillingness to protect biodiversity”.

Biodiversity is a key ally in ensuring food security. Every bit we eat depends on biodiversity. However, we have not come to understand it better. Resultantly, our agro-biodiversity, the plants and animals selected and protected over eons, has shrunk. It is reported that less than 20 species of plants account for over 90 percent of our food supply. Of these four go to meet 60 percent of calories. Similarly, 14 domesticated species of animals provide 90 percent of our food supply, and many of them, including 20 percent of fish species, are now endangered.

Therefore, highlighting biodiversity's role in ensuring that people have sustainable access to enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives, FAO has announced that this year’s World Food Day and Tele Food Campaign would be celebrated across the globe with the theme – Biodiversity for Food Security. FAO celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October in commemoration of its founding on that day in 1945 at Quebec City, Canada.

Given the extent of hunger population in the world and slow progress in meeting the millennium target of halving it by 2015, this year’s World Food Day theme has awakened the global community that biological diversity is fundamental to agriculture and food production. The message is clear: If we do not understand it better now and put in efforts to protect and promote it, the resulting consequences would not only be devastating to the nature but would also be a curse to human lives.

According to FAO, “in order to feed a growing population, agriculture must provide more food. It will also be essential to increase its resilience by protecting a wide array of life forms with unique traits, such as plants that survive drought or livestock that reproduce in harsh conditions. Sustainable agricultural practices can both feed people and protect the oceans, forests, prairies and other ecosystems that harbour biological diversity. A rich variety of cultivated plants and domesticated animals are the foundation for agricultural biodiversity. Yet people depend on just 14 mammal and bird species for 90 percent of their food supply from animals. And just four species - wheat, maize, rice and potato - provide half of our energy from plants.”

Therefore, time has come that we define our responsibilities towards protecting biodiversity. Conserving biodiversity for agriculture will require efforts on many fronts including measures to preserve the environment, better education, increased research and government support. Collaboration of various partners, including international organisations; research, trade and policy institutes; grassroots community groups; and the public and consumers is a key to ensure that biodiversity helps in ensuring food security.

Importantly, there are two main international treaties that call for sustainable use and conservation of this valuable genetic treasure. They are: Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 1992 and International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), 2001.

At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders agreed on a comprehensive strategy for "sustainable development" -- meeting our needs while ensuring that we leave a healthy and viable world for future generations. One of the key agreements adopted at Rio was the CBD. Countries that have ratified the CBD have been legally bound to a commitment that aims to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and the equitable sharing of its benefits. The CBD has provisioned that Contracting Parties to the Convention must establish rules governing access to biological resources, systems recognising the rights of local communities, and mechanisms ensuring the transfer of appropriate technologies.

Similarly, ITPGRFA is an important international instrument governing the conservation and sustainable utilisation of agricultural biodiversity. The Treaty seeks to develop and maintain a balance between access to the new, commercial products of biotechnology on the one hand, and farmers' varieties and wild material on the other. The Treaty aims to establish a multilateral system to facilitate access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and to share the benefits arising from the utilisation of these resources, in a fair and equitable way.

These treaties hold importance to countries like Nepal which are rich in biodiversity. While Nepal is a Contracting Party to the CBD, it is yet to act upon ITPGRFA. But one should take note of the fact that on the one hand, while being a signatory to these treaties is important, on the other, the government needs to develop or implement effective and concrete national level policy and legal measures to protect and promote biodiversity. Similarly, there are roles to play for each agencies and individuals. Therefore, realising that protecting biodiversity is a collective responsibility and food insecurity is a common problem, time has come that we unite and put in concerted and comprehensive efforts to protect biodiversity so that we could lead to such a world, which has sustainable means to ensure food for all. Failing to do so means we are heading for a catastrophe.

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