Table of Contents
Agricultural biodiversity represents one of humanity’s most valuable resources, encompassing the rich variety of plant and animal species, genetic materials, and ecosystems that form the foundation of our global food systems. This diversity includes the wide variety of plants, animals, and microorganisms used for food and agriculture, as well as the ecosystems they form. As we face unprecedented challenges from climate change, population growth, and environmental degradation, understanding and preserving agricultural biodiversity has never been more critical to ensuring food security and sustainable development for future generations.
Understanding Agricultural Biodiversity: The Foundation of Food Systems
Agricultural biodiversity exists on three levels: genetic diversity (within species), species diversity (among species), and ecosystem diversity (among environments). This multifaceted nature makes it essential not only for food production but also for environmental health, sustainable farming practices, and community resilience in the face of climate change.
Biodiversity for food and agriculture is indispensable to food security and sustainable development, supplying many vital ecosystem services such as creating and maintaining healthy soils, pollinating plants, controlling pests, and providing habitat for wildlife. These ecosystem services form the invisible infrastructure that supports agricultural productivity worldwide.
The scope of agricultural biodiversity extends far beyond the crops we see in fields. It spans everything from cultivated crops and domesticated animals to wild relatives, soil organisms, and pollinators. Each component plays a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance of agricultural ecosystems and ensuring their long-term productivity.
The Critical Importance of Agricultural Biodiversity for Food Security
Biodiversity is the backbone of resilient food systems, offering the diversity necessary to adapt to changing conditions and sustain food production. This resilience becomes increasingly important as agricultural systems face mounting pressures from climate variability, emerging pests and diseases, and changing environmental conditions.
Supporting Agricultural Production and Ecosystem Services
Biodiversity can support agricultural production, mitigate negative effects of pollution, provide livelihood outcomes, provide diverse diets to fight hidden hunger, and is crucial for resilience against future food security risks. These multiple functions demonstrate that biodiversity conservation is not merely an environmental concern but a fundamental requirement for sustainable agriculture.
The benefits of agrobiodiversity extend beyond food production; it also underpins vital ecosystem services such as pollination, pest control, and soil health, which are essential for maintaining productive agricultural landscapes. These services, often taken for granted, represent billions of dollars in economic value and are irreplaceable by technological alternatives.
Building Resilience Against Climate Change
Biodiversity makes production systems and livelihoods more resilient to shocks and stresses, including those caused by climate change. As weather patterns become increasingly unpredictable and extreme events more frequent, this resilience function of biodiversity becomes ever more valuable.
Genetic diversity within crops and livestock breeds is critical for adapting to changing climatic conditions, as traditional varieties often possess traits that confer resilience to drought, pests, and diseases, and preserving agrobiodiversity can help safeguard agricultural productivity as climate change intensifies. These traditional varieties represent millennia of natural selection and farmer breeding, creating a genetic library of adaptive traits.
A diverse agricultural system can better absorb shocks and maintain productivity, ensuring food security in the face of uncertainty, as a wide range of species present within ecosystems protects from changing environmental conditions and improves resilience. This diversity acts as a natural insurance policy against agricultural failures.
Enhancing Nutritional Security
Beyond simply producing calories, agricultural biodiversity plays a crucial role in nutritional security. Wild foods contribute to food security both via direct consumption and by being sold to buy other food, with many wild foods rich in micronutrients, some containing more than their cultivated counterparts, and eating them can alleviate micronutrient and protein deficiencies. This nutritional dimension of biodiversity is particularly important in addressing hidden hunger and malnutrition.
Agricultural biodiversity includes a wide variety of crops, livestock, and microorganisms that provide diverse food sources, contribute to nutritional balance, and sustain cultural heritage. This diversity ensures that communities have access to a range of nutrients and can maintain traditional food systems that have sustained them for generations.
The Alarming Decline of Agricultural Biodiversity
Despite its critical importance, agricultural biodiversity faces unprecedented threats. Over the past century, about 75% of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers have shifted toward high-yielding, genetically uniform crops. This dramatic erosion of genetic resources represents an irreversible loss of options for future food security.
Drivers of Biodiversity Loss
Unsustainable agricultural practices are the leading driver of biodiversity loss globally and a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The very systems designed to feed humanity have become the primary threat to the biological diversity upon which they depend.
Agriculture, especially over the last 50 years, stands out as the main driver of habitat loss, accounting for 80% of all global land-use changes, primarily through the conversion of natural ecosystems for crop production and pastures. This expansion has come at an enormous cost to natural ecosystems and the species they support.
The change toward industrialized agriculture, characterized by monocultures and the dominance of a few high-yield varieties, has led to major genetic erosion and reduced resilience against pests and diseases. Modern agriculture’s focus on uniformity and high yields has inadvertently created vulnerability in our food systems.
The Scale of Genetic Erosion
The extent of genetic erosion in major crops is staggering. Maize has over 20,000 known varieties adapted to different climates, soils, and altitudes, yet industrial agriculture uses only a small fraction of these, focusing on hybrid or genetically modified varieties optimized for high yields in uniform conditions. Similarly, rice has nearly 100,000 varieties grown or preserved around the world, with most conserved by small-scale farmers and seed banks rather than used in industrial food systems.
Many key components of biodiversity for food and agriculture at genetic, species and ecosystem levels are in decline, with the proportion of livestock breeds at risk of extinction increasing and the diversity of crops present in farmers’ fields declining. This trend threatens to leave future generations with far fewer options for adapting agriculture to changing conditions.
Multiple Threats Converging
Urbanization and land use changes intensify biodiversity loss by changing agricultural lands into urban areas, climate change poses a growing challenge by altering weather patterns, the extensive use of chemical pesticides and herbicides contributes to decline by damaging beneficial microorganisms, and globalization and market pressure undermine the cultivation of traditional varieties. These interconnected threats create a perfect storm for biodiversity loss.
Geographic Varieties: Locally Adapted Genetic Treasures
Geographic varieties, also known as landraces or traditional varieties, represent plant and animal populations that have evolved in specific regions over centuries or millennia. These locally adapted strains possess unique genetic characteristics that enable them to thrive in particular environmental conditions, making them invaluable resources for sustainable agriculture and climate adaptation.
Characteristics and Value of Landraces
Landraces differ fundamentally from modern commercial varieties in their genetic makeup and adaptation strategies. While modern varieties are typically bred for uniformity and high performance under optimal conditions with substantial inputs, landraces exhibit genetic diversity within the population and are adapted to perform reliably under local conditions with minimal inputs.
These traditional varieties often carry genes for resistance to local pests and diseases, tolerance to environmental stresses such as drought or poor soils, and adaptation to specific cultural practices and uses. This genetic richness makes them essential resources for breeding programs seeking to develop climate-resilient crops.
The magic behind sustainable agriculture is a rich and diverse genetic base from which to draw so you can find things that are resistant to the pests and insects, and are naturally drought-tolerant. Geographic varieties provide exactly this genetic base, representing thousands of years of selection for local adaptation.
Cultural and Historical Significance
Beyond their genetic value, geographic varieties carry immense cultural and historical significance. Many plants that were used centuries ago by humans are used less frequently now; seed banks offer a way to preserve that historical and cultural value. These varieties are often intimately connected to traditional knowledge systems, cultural practices, and community identities.
Indigenous and traditional farming communities have served as custodians of these varieties for generations, maintaining them through careful selection and seed saving. Their knowledge of how to grow, use, and preserve these varieties represents an invaluable complement to the genetic resources themselves.
Comprehensive Strategies for Conservation of Geographic Varieties
Conserving geographic varieties requires a multifaceted approach that combines different conservation strategies, each with its own strengths and limitations. The most effective conservation programs integrate multiple approaches to ensure both the preservation of genetic material and its continued evolution and use.
Ex Situ Conservation: Seed Banks and Gene Banks
A seed bank stores seeds to preserve genetic diversity and is a type of gene bank, preserving genes that plant breeders need to increase yield, disease resistance, drought tolerance, and nutritional quality, while also forestalling loss of genetic diversity in rare or imperiled plant species. These facilities serve as insurance against the loss of valuable genetic resources.
The global genebank network developed by CGIAR conserves over 700,000 accessions of more than 3000 plant species, representing a treasure trove of genetic material for breeding climate- and disease-resistant crops. This network forms the backbone of global efforts to preserve crop genetic diversity.
Seed banking has considerable advantages over other methods of ex situ conservation such as ease of storage, economy of space, relatively low labour demands and consequently, the capacity to maintain large samples at an economically viable cost. These practical advantages have made seed banking the preferred method for conserving most crop genetic resources.
Major Seed Bank Initiatives Worldwide
Numerous seed banks around the world work to preserve agricultural biodiversity. The Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst is a world leader in conservation of wild plant species, with the majority of seed collections curated by the larger Millennium Seed Bank Partnership active in over 80 countries, currently holding more than 92,500 seed collections representing over 40,000 species.
The Vavilov Research Institute in St. Petersburg, founded in 1921, is the world’s oldest and largest seed bank, housing a total of 60,000 seed varieties with herbariums containing some 250,000 cultivated plant specimens and their wild relatives. This historic institution has preserved invaluable genetic resources through wars, famines, and political upheavals.
BGCI figures indicate that there are currently over 400 botanic gardens that have seed banks maintaining seeds in long term and medium-term storage. This global network of institutions provides redundancy and security for conserved genetic resources.
Advanced Seed Banking Technologies
Several botanic gardens have developed the capacity to store isolated embryos, minute seeds and tissues under conditions of cryopreservation, maintaining samples in liquid nitrogen at temperatures of –196°C, offering great potential for the maintenance and conservation of biodiversity, particularly plant species that cannot be stored by conventional means. These advanced techniques expand the range of species that can be conserved ex situ.
To overcome the predicament of obligatory viability assessment of stored seeds, non-destructive viability test methods allow assessment of seed viability while preserving samples intact, with simple, reliable, and predictive methods such as infrared thermography, lipid thermal fingerprinting and redox-based resazurin tests. These innovations help ensure the long-term effectiveness of seed conservation programs.
In Situ Conservation: Preserving Diversity in Natural Habitats
In-situ conservation of seed-producing plant species involves the creation of National Parks, National Forests, and National Wildlife Refuges as a way of preserving the natural habitat of the targeted seed-producing organisms. This approach maintains species in their natural environments where they continue to evolve.
In-situ conservation allows plants to continue to evolve with their environment through natural selection, and in-situ conservation of agricultural resources is performed on-farm. This ongoing evolution is crucial for maintaining the adaptive capacity of crop wild relatives and landraces.
In situ conservation offers several unique advantages. It maintains evolutionary processes, allowing populations to continue adapting to changing environmental conditions. It preserves the ecological relationships between species and their environments, including interactions with pollinators, soil microorganisms, and other species. It also maintains the cultural and traditional knowledge associated with these varieties within farming communities.
On-Farm Conservation: Living Diversity in Agricultural Systems
On-farm conservation represents a dynamic approach where farmers continue to grow and manage traditional varieties in their fields. This method maintains genetic diversity while allowing continued evolution and adaptation of crops to changing conditions. It also preserves the traditional knowledge and practices associated with these varieties.
In countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, smallholder farmers have integrated legumes and cover crops into their rotations, which not only enhances soil fertility through nitrogen fixation but also contributes to improved food security by providing multiple harvests throughout the year. These practices demonstrate how on-farm conservation can simultaneously preserve biodiversity and improve agricultural productivity.
On-farm conservation is particularly important for crops that are difficult to maintain in seed banks, such as vegetatively propagated species or those with recalcitrant seeds that cannot survive conventional storage. It also ensures that varieties remain adapted to local conditions and farming practices, maintaining their practical utility for farmers.
Community-Based Conservation Programs
Community-based conservation programs engage local communities as active participants in conservation efforts, recognizing their role as custodians of agricultural biodiversity. These programs often combine elements of on-farm conservation with community seed banks, farmer seed networks, and participatory plant breeding.
Native Seeds/SEARCH was established in 1983 when the nonprofit organization received the base of its seed collection from more than 50 Native American tribes, has grown to house a library of 1,800 varieties of seeds native to the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico, with a good portion of seeds given back to Native American tribes to help keep their agricultural traditions alive, with about 20 percent of seeds sent out going to Native Americans for free. This model demonstrates how conservation can support cultural preservation and community food sovereignty.
Community-based programs offer several advantages. They maintain the connection between genetic resources and the traditional knowledge needed to use them effectively. They empower local communities and support their food sovereignty. They also create economic opportunities through the production and sale of traditional varieties, providing incentives for continued conservation.
Integrating Conservation with Sustainable Agricultural Practices
Effective conservation of agricultural biodiversity cannot be separated from broader efforts to develop sustainable agricultural systems. Diversifying production systems, for example by using multiple species, breeds or varieties, integrating the use of crop, livestock, forest and aquatic biodiversity, or promoting habitat diversity in the local landscape or seascape, helps to promote resilience, improve livelihoods and support food security and nutrition.
Agroecological Approaches
Agroecology is a holistic and integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to design and manage sustainable agricultural and food systems, seeking to optimize interactions among plants, animals, humans, and the environment while addressing the need for socially equitable food systems. This approach provides a framework for integrating biodiversity conservation with agricultural production.
Having healthy soils reduces the need for chemical inputs while also providing habitats for beneficial organisms that help control pests and diseases, and having a diverse range of crops such as with polycultures and crop rotation improves yield stability and creates a system with natural defenses against pests. These practices demonstrate how biodiversity can enhance agricultural productivity while reducing environmental impacts.
Organic Farming and Biodiversity
Countries including Sweden, Germany, and France have implemented extensive organic farming initiatives with success, with these farms showing improved soil health, increased species diversity, and greater ecosystem stability that supports food production. Organic farming systems typically support higher levels of biodiversity both above and below ground compared to conventional systems.
Agricultural systems rich in biodiversity benefit from improved soil fertility, enhanced pollination, natural pest control, and water regulation, all of which reduce dependence on external inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This creates a positive feedback loop where biodiversity supports productivity, which in turn supports the maintenance of biodiversity.
The Role of Seed Banks in Ecosystem Restoration
Ex situ seed banks can leverage their technical and infrastructural capacity to play a greater and more direct role in supporting biodiversity and ecosystem conservation and restoration, particularly through the supply of quality ecologically and genetically suitable seed. This expanded role for seed banks connects conservation with active restoration of degraded ecosystems.
The rich diversity of multiple ecotypes of species or populations curated in seed banks is arguably the greatest resource and asset that seed banks have in supporting habitat restoration. This diversity enables restoration practitioners to select materials appropriate for specific site conditions and restoration goals.
Through climate modelling it is becoming increasingly possible to predict future climatic conditions of a given area, and seed banks can potentially help identify and access genetic materials that will adapt in these “future climates,” with the availability of germplasm collections with ecotypes obtained from genetic sources spread along diverse climate gradients making seed banks an important source of genetic material for assisted migration and enrichment planting. This forward-looking approach helps ensure that restoration efforts are climate-smart and resilient.
Challenges in Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation
Despite the critical importance of agricultural biodiversity conservation and the various strategies available, numerous challenges impede effective conservation efforts. Understanding these challenges is essential for developing solutions and improving conservation outcomes.
Technical and Logistical Challenges
Seed banks face the challenge of ensuring the viability of stored seeds without depleting the precious stock, requiring non-destructive viability test methods that allow assessment of seed viability while preserving samples intact. This technical challenge requires ongoing research and development of new methods.
Small seed lots are quickly depleted by continuous use, undermining their value as long-term ex situ conservation collections, and seed lot size also affects the amount of genetic diversity stored in each collection as well as the number of maternal lines represented. Balancing use and conservation requires careful management and strategic planning.
In Europe, the large majority of species are typically represented with less than five different populations in seed banks, which is a minimum recommendation, with this shortfall arising from logistical and financial constraints, incomplete knowledge of species’ distribution, or prioritization of unbanked species over repeated collections. These gaps in collections limit the effectiveness of ex situ conservation.
Financial and Resource Constraints
Funding is a major constraint for seed banking and conservation efforts. Conservation programs require sustained long-term funding for collection, storage, monitoring, and regeneration of genetic materials. Many seed banks struggle with inadequate resources to maintain existing collections, let alone expand them to fill gaps.
The costs of conservation extend beyond simple storage. Regular viability testing, periodic regeneration of declining seed lots, documentation and characterization of collections, and making materials available to users all require significant resources. Securing stable, long-term funding for these activities remains a persistent challenge.
Policy and Governance Issues
Conservation of agricultural biodiversity involves complex policy and governance issues, including questions of ownership and access to genetic resources, benefit-sharing arrangements, intellectual property rights, and the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. International agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture provide frameworks for addressing these issues, but implementation remains challenging.
Balancing conservation goals with agricultural development priorities also presents policy challenges. The Russian attack on Ukraine and related disruption of agricultural value chains intensified calls to stabilize food security at the cost of biodiversity, with examples including postponement of the EU nature conservation package in view of threat of food shortages, suspending the halving of chemical pesticides by 2030 and renaturalization of agricultural land. These examples illustrate how short-term pressures can undermine long-term conservation goals.
Future Directions and Innovations in Conservation
Reversing agricultural biodiversity loss requires a multifaceted approach that combines conservation, sustainable farming practices, and scientific innovation, with conservation of genetic resources—the seeds, genes, and living organisms that underpin our food systems—being central to these efforts. Looking forward, several promising directions offer hope for more effective conservation.
Advanced Technologies and Methods
Using cutting-edge methods like genetic engineering, biotechnology, and cryopreservation can increase seed viability while concentrating on protecting genetic variety, wild vegetation, and more underrepresented species in order to mitigate the threats posed by climate change and environmental degradation. These technologies expand the toolkit available for conservation.
Analysis of germplasm collections is enabling the identification of genetic markers associated with certain environments, with comparative analysis of samples obtained from the same population at different times revealing diverse genetic and phenotypic changes, and in some cases revealing the emergence of novel alleles through adaptation and evolution. These insights help prioritize conservation efforts and identify valuable adaptive traits.
Temporal Dimension of Seed Collections
A long-term experimental approach that, together with new targeted collecting programmes, can leverage the temporal dimension of seed collections by carrying out repeated sampling from the same population offers new opportunities for understanding and conserving adaptive capacity. This approach recognizes that populations are not static but continue to evolve over time.
By targeting populations in climate-vulnerable regions and focusing on traits that confer resilience, seed banks can play a proactive role in supporting biodiversity under rapidly changing environmental conditions, with species and populations prioritized for temporal recollecting to support either their conservation or their sustainable use according to their level of threat and purpose of collections. This strategic approach helps ensure that conservation efforts address future needs.
Strengthening International Cooperation
Future directions for seed bank development emphasize the necessity of better technology, international cooperation, and including local populations in conservation initiatives. No single institution or country can effectively conserve global agricultural biodiversity alone; international cooperation and coordination are essential.
Strengthening networks of seed banks, improving information sharing and coordination, developing common standards and protocols, and ensuring equitable access to conserved materials all require enhanced international cooperation. Building capacity in developing countries, where much agricultural biodiversity is found, is particularly important.
The Role of Different Stakeholders in Conservation
Protecting biodiversity requires action from multiple fronts, scientists, farmers, policymakers, and consumers alike. Effective conservation of agricultural biodiversity depends on the engagement and collaboration of diverse stakeholders, each playing distinct but complementary roles.
Farmers as Custodians and Innovators
Farmers and farmworkers who are pivotal in food production also play a crucial role in biodiversity, as through the way they manage their land farmers directly impact the health and resilience of ecosystems and act as stewards of biodiversity, with their daily practices either enhancing or hindering the sustainability and resilience of agricultural landscapes. Farmers are not merely passive recipients of conservation programs but active agents of conservation.
Supporting farmers in maintaining diverse agricultural systems requires appropriate policies, market access for diverse products, recognition and compensation for conservation services, and access to knowledge and resources. Participatory approaches that engage farmers in conservation decision-making and plant breeding can be particularly effective.
Consumers and Market Forces
By valuing variety on their plates, consumers send a signal to markets and governments to do the same in fields and farms. Consumer choices can create demand for diverse agricultural products, supporting farmers who maintain traditional varieties and diverse farming systems.
One of the most effective ways to preserve agricultural biodiversity is to support local food systems and especially farmers markets, which create a direct connection between producers and consumers and offer space for preserving local food traditions and seed diversity while supporting small-scale farmers and rural economies. These direct marketing channels provide economic incentives for maintaining diversity.
Scientists and Research Institutions
Scientists and research institutions contribute to conservation through collecting and characterizing genetic resources, developing improved conservation methods, conducting research on the use of conserved materials, and providing technical support to conservation programs. Collaboration between conservation programs and research institutions enhances the value and utility of conserved materials.
Plant material and data stored globally in conservation seed banks represents not only a repository of plant genetic resources but also an asset for nature-based solutions such as ecological restoration and reforestation and research in plant science, with exploration of the temporal and spatial dimensions of seed collections and challenges limiting their use while highlighting how they could be a source of material for adaptation and evolution studies. This research dimension adds value to conservation efforts.
Policymakers and Government Agencies
Policymakers and government agencies play crucial roles in creating enabling environments for conservation through developing and implementing conservation policies and programs, providing funding and resources for conservation, establishing protected areas and conservation regulations, and facilitating international cooperation. Effective policies recognize the multiple values of agricultural biodiversity and create incentives for its conservation and sustainable use.
Practical Steps for Supporting Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation
While the challenges facing agricultural biodiversity are significant, there are many practical actions that individuals, communities, and organizations can take to support conservation efforts. These actions range from simple changes in daily practices to more substantial commitments.
Individual and Household Actions
Ways to help include promoting and supporting seed-saving initiatives, choosing locally grown, seasonal, and diverse foods, reducing reliance on industrial monocultures, supporting policies that protect agroecological practices, and investing in education and community-led conservation. These individual actions, when multiplied across many people, can create significant impact.
Growing diverse varieties in home gardens, saving and sharing seeds, purchasing products from farmers who maintain diverse systems, and learning about and teaching others about agricultural biodiversity all contribute to conservation. Even small actions help maintain awareness and create demand for diversity.
Community-Level Initiatives
A less expensive, community-supported seed library can save local genetic material. Community seed libraries, seed swaps, and local seed networks provide accessible ways for communities to engage in conservation while building food security and community resilience.
Community gardens that grow diverse varieties, farmers markets that feature traditional and heirloom varieties, and educational programs about agricultural biodiversity all strengthen community-level conservation. These initiatives also build social connections and community capacity.
Institutional and Organizational Actions
Organizations can support conservation by incorporating diverse varieties into their operations, supporting conservation programs financially or through partnerships, advocating for policies that support biodiversity, and educating their members or constituents about agricultural biodiversity. Schools, restaurants, food businesses, and other organizations all have opportunities to support conservation.
Through community education programs and workshops, research initiatives, and events, organizations aim to increase awareness about sustainable stewardship and the importance of plant diversity. Education and awareness-raising are fundamental to building long-term support for conservation.
The Economic Value of Agricultural Biodiversity
Beyond ecological importance, agricultural biodiversity has a massive economic value—both direct and indirect. Understanding and articulating this economic value is important for securing support and resources for conservation.
The direct economic value includes the market value of diverse products, the value of genetic resources for crop improvement, and the value of ecosystem services provided by biodiversity. The indirect economic value includes reduced risks from crop failures, reduced need for external inputs, and enhanced resilience to climate change and other shocks.
Biodiversity makes a variety of contributions to the livelihoods of many people, often reducing the need for food and agricultural producers to rely on costly or environmentally harmful external inputs. This economic benefit is particularly important for smallholder farmers and resource-poor communities.
Climate Change and the Urgency of Conservation
The future of biodiversity maintenance and crop security faces significant threats due to climate instability, with ex situ seed banks serving as refuges for major crop varieties and their wild relatives in catastrophic situations. Climate change adds urgency to conservation efforts while also highlighting the value of conserved genetic diversity.
Driven by climate change, habitat destruction, and the relentless march of agricultural expansion, we are witnessing an unprecedented erosion of genetic diversity, with this loss being more than just a scientific or environmental concern but a direct threat to global food security and human survival, as biodiversity loss in agriculture is a pressing threat to global food systems, reducing our ability to cope with climate change, environmental degradation, and nutritional challenges.
The genetic diversity conserved in seed banks and maintained in farmers’ fields represents our best insurance against climate change impacts on agriculture. As conditions change, we will need to draw on this diversity to develop new varieties adapted to new conditions. Without adequate conservation, these options will be lost forever.
Linking Conservation to Sustainable Development Goals
Safeguarding food security (Sustainability Development Goal 2; Zero Hunger) and global biodiversity loss (sixth mass-extinction) are key challenges in our polycrisis-ridden world. Agricultural biodiversity conservation directly contributes to multiple Sustainable Development Goals beyond just food security and biodiversity conservation.
Data from WIEWS and DAD-IS are used to monitor indicators 2.5.1 (Number of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in medium- or long-term conservation facilities) and 2.5.2 (Proportion of local breeds, classified as being at risk, not-at-risk or at unknown level of risk of extinction) of the Sustainable Development Goals. These indicators provide a framework for tracking progress in conservation.
Conservation also contributes to goals related to poverty reduction, nutrition, gender equality, climate action, and sustainable production and consumption. Recognizing these multiple contributions helps build broader support for conservation efforts and ensures they are integrated into development planning.
Building a Sustainable Future Through Biodiversity Conservation
Stop hunger first, then worry about diversity afterward is not a sustainable option. This insight captures a fundamental truth: agricultural biodiversity conservation and food security are not competing goals but complementary and mutually reinforcing objectives. We cannot achieve lasting food security without conserving the genetic diversity that underpins agricultural productivity and resilience.
The transformation of food and agricultural systems is a critical nexus issue, with new systems of food and agricultural production urgently needed to replace current business-as-usual scenarios, not only to safeguard biodiversity but also food security and nutrition, land health and local livelihoods. This transformation requires integrating biodiversity conservation into the heart of agricultural development.
To secure our future, we must shift toward agricultural practices that protect and restore biodiversity, ensuring nature can continue to provide its essential services. This shift requires changes at all levels, from individual choices to global policies, from farming practices to food systems, from research priorities to investment decisions.
The conservation of geographic varieties and agricultural biodiversity more broadly represents an investment in our collective future. It maintains options for adapting to unknown future challenges, preserves cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, supports sustainable livelihoods, and ensures that future generations inherit a world with the biological resources needed to feed themselves sustainably.
As agriculture faces increasing pressures from climate change and environmental degradation, prioritizing the conservation of biodiversity will be essential for securing the future of food systems worldwide. The time to act is now, before more irreplaceable genetic diversity is lost forever.
Conclusion: A Call to Action for Agricultural Biodiversity
Agricultural biodiversity and the conservation of geographic varieties represent critical foundations for sustainable food systems and global food security. The dramatic loss of genetic diversity over the past century has created vulnerabilities in our food systems that threaten our ability to feed a growing population in a changing climate. However, through comprehensive conservation strategies that integrate ex situ seed banking, in situ conservation, on-farm management, and community-based programs, we can preserve this invaluable heritage for future generations.
The path forward requires coordinated action from all stakeholders—farmers, scientists, policymakers, consumers, and communities. It demands adequate and sustained funding for conservation programs, supportive policies that create incentives for maintaining diversity, continued innovation in conservation methods and technologies, and widespread awareness of the importance of agricultural biodiversity. Most importantly, it requires recognizing that biodiversity conservation is not a luxury or an obstacle to development but a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable agriculture and food security.
Every seed saved, every traditional variety maintained, every diverse farming system supported contributes to preserving the biological foundation of our food systems. As we face the challenges of climate change, population growth, and environmental degradation, the genetic diversity conserved today will provide the raw materials for tomorrow’s solutions. The question is not whether we can afford to invest in agricultural biodiversity conservation, but whether we can afford not to.
For more information on supporting agricultural biodiversity, visit the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and explore resources from the Convention on Biological Diversity. Organizations like The Crop Trust, Bioversity International, and Seed Savers Exchange offer opportunities for individuals and communities to engage in conservation efforts and learn more about preserving our agricultural heritage.