Rome – As more than 150 countries convene in Rome for the resumed session of the 16th United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16.2), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is calling for bold action to transform agrifood systems and support global biodiversity goals. Hosting a high-level meeting at its headquarters on the eve of the conference, FAO emphasized that agrifood systems must work in harmony with biodiversity to ensure a sustainable future for both people and the planet.
The event built on the momentum generated last October at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, where FAO, the Government of Colombia, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat launched the Agri-NBSAPs Support Initiative. The Initiative aims to assist governments in integrating agrifood systems into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and their implementation.
“The initiative provides us with a collective mechanism to help governments build capacity, identify and implement strategic levers across agrifood sectors to achieve their national biodiversity targets,” explained FAO Director-General QU Dongyu while opening the event.
Qu was joined by Colombian officials María Susana Muhamad González, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development and President of COP16, and Martha Carvajalino, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the CBD, and ministers from several countries, who reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), keeping agrifood systems front and center.
COP16 President Muhamad recognized FAO’s crucial role in bringing food security and agriculture into the core of the Global Biodiversity framework and welcomed the partnership with Colombia and the CBD in the Agri-NBSAPs Support Initiative, highlighting that it is a very important joint effort that she hopes to see materialized.
Minister Carvajalino stressed the urgency of global collaboration to align agriculture and environmental strategies, emphasizing that Colombia aims to address shared challenges and push this discussion to the forefront with FAO support, highlighting sustainable food production as indispensable to end hunger.
CBD Executive Secretary Schomaker said that biodiversity is fundamental to food security and nutrition, and that transforming agrifood systems is crucial for achieving both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. She highlighted the importance of an integrated approach working with farmers to integrate biodiversity into national strategies, noting the broader consequences for peace and climate stability.
Biodiversity is essential for food production, providing key ecosystem services such as pollination, soil fertility, pest control, and climate regulation. The ongoing degradation of ecosystems poses significant risks, with an estimated 3 billion lives at stake, particularly among vulnerable populations. The loss of pollinators could have huge negative impact on food security as up to 75 percent of the world’s food crops depends at least in part on pollination.
The FAO Director-General emphasized the importance of implementing the KMGBF, adopted at COP15, to address these challenges. “Over half of the Framework’s 23 targets are directly related to agriculture,” he noted, underscoring the need for countries to integrate agrifood systems into their NBSAPs. He explained that “biodiversity is also in the soil and in the water” and that it is critical “to look at biodiversity from a holistic, three-dimensional perspective”.
He warned that financial investment remains a crucial factor in achieving biodiversity goals, and integrating agrifood systems into national biodiversity strategies and action plans can unlock funding opportunities through international mechanisms, public-private partnerships, and national budgets.
“It is critical to get the farmers on board, for them to take ownership and be part of the partnership. Without the farmers, it is only political policy without implementation,” he added.
Cali biodiversity talks continue in Rome
With unfinished negotiations from Cali now back on the table at COP16.2, the resumed session in Rome marks a decisive moment for the global biodiversity agenda. Key discussions this week include finalizing financial mechanisms to mobilize the estimated $200 billion per year needed to implement the KMGBF, as well as refining monitoring frameworks to track progress.
FAO is playing a central role in supporting countries to integrate biodiversity into agrifood systems and agrifood systems into biodiversity plans and actions, ensuring that policies and actions simultaneously deliver both biodiversity and food security benefits. As negotiations continue, FAO remains committed to bridging the gap between ambition and implementation, fostering cross-sector collaboration, and securing essential resources to protect biodiversity while ensuring food security for future generations.
“We need an integrated approach across government sectors, across Ministries, to ensure the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, better environment, and a better life – leaving no one behind,” FAO Director-General concluded, underlining that this was “the common philosophy needed to produce staple, nutritious, healthy and functional foods – the four levels of foods.”
