Posted on November, 07 2024
As 2030 comes ever closer, it’s time to align the UN Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification Conventions
By Joao Campari, Global Food and Agriculture Practice Leader, WWF International
Last week, challenging decisions due to be made at CBD COP16 were postponed, putting the effective implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) at risk. While there were some positive outcomes that will support smallholder agricultural communities, humanity is ultimately one important step more distant from the successful delivery of the sustainable development agenda by 2030. Unless we take new approaches, we will wind up even further away.
The three Rio Conventions (CBD - biodiversity, UNFCCC - climate change, and UNCCD - desertification) were established thirty two years ago with the hope to preserve and restore our degrading natural environment.
Since then, each Convention has pursued its own agenda with limited acknowledgement of the shared opportunities. Presently, Parties to each Convention must develop independent plans and targets: National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans for CBD, Nationally Determined Contributions for UNFCCC and Land Degradation Neutrality Targets for UNCCD.
This creates a large amount of work for policymakers, especially those in smaller states and with limited resources. Efforts are duplicated and resources divided. Impact has been limited.
But now the COP Presidencies are calling for coordinated efforts and stronger partnerships between governments, multilateral institutions and civil society. Colombia has suggested they will write a synthesized plan to tackle targets in all three conventions ahead of next year’s climate COP30 in Brazil.
These are welcome moves towards the delivery of synergistic value for the greater environmental and social good. The challenges of climate change, nature loss and desertification are intertwined and so must be the solutions.
Download Aligning the Rio Conventions for Sustainable Food Systems Transformation
Food and agricultural systems are the root cause of biodiversity loss (70-80%), large contributors to greenhouse gas emissions (at least 30%), and a major cause of land degradation (we use more land to produce food than do anything else, but 52% of agricultural land is degraded).
These systems are, therefore, uniquely positioned to deliver value across all three Rio Conventions.
As food and agriculture systems actors, we need to stop making siloed asks of COPs for each UN Convention.
We need to contribute to the desired integration by bringing forward a unique Food and Agriculture strategy for all COPs, focused on the solutions with the highest payoffs for planet (by bringing agri-food systems to operate within planetary boundaries), places (by implementing concrete actions on the ground in landscapes undergoing the highest threats while protecting those that are intact), people (by valuing more and by bringing the voices of underrepresented groups forward in each place) and prosperity (by making nature-positive agri-food systems an imperative, enabling the generation and fair distribution of wealth, replacing a system that often relies on and stimulates rent seeking which destroys economic and social value for everyone).
There are already many examples of integrated, high-impact food systems actions. For instance, in Negros Occidental in the Philippines, sugarcane farmers have adapted their practices to better manage the watershed and deal with the impacts of climate change. By integrating fragmented lands into block farms and intercropping vegetables with the cane, farmers are diversifying their incomes, preventing soil erosion, improving water access for people and wildlife, and limiting the impacts of less predictable weather patterns.
In Argentina, important areas of the Pampas are being conserved by livestock ranchers who use sustainable grazing techniques. Not only does the grass-fed cattle provide nutrition and livelihoods for numerous communities, it prevents further conversion of the landscape for intensive mono-crop agriculture, eliminates land degradation from overgrazing, enriches soil health helping to sequester carbon, and preserves habitat for many species including the iconic pampas deer.
Despite such successes, the approaches are rarely reflected in national plans for all of CBD, UNFCCC and UNCCD. As such, funding and resources are not being directed to scale and replicate food systems work which is proven to deliver impact. A coordinated approach is necessary to identify the food systems programmes and actions which can deliver the greatest progress in the shortest time possible.
In addition to food systems transformation being prioritized and used as an entry point to synergise the biodiversity, climate change and desertification agendas, there must also be a significant increase in funding for food systems transformation. Even as countries have started to recognize the need for more action (e.g. with more than 150 countries signing the Emirates Declaration on Food at last year’s COP28), funding is still sorely lacking.
Although crucial finance decisions were delayed at CBD COP16, the progress on representation for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, digital sequence information for genetic resources and mainstreaming biodiversity in all sectors including food and agriculture, is encouraging. This must be reflected at COP29 and UNCCD COP16, with ambitious actions and increased finance.
Next year’s Climate COP30 takes place in Belém, the heart of the Amazon. There could be no more obvious alignment of the nature, climate and desertification agendas.
But we can’t wait another year to advance integration.
Every minute wasted is another tree chopped down, more hectares of savannah ploughed up, and another species driven closer to extinction.
Now is the time to develop integrated targets and plans, and food systems transformation is the obvious solution to the most pressing challenges we collectively face.
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