The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture (SoW-BFA) Report (2019) presents the first global assessment of biodiversity for food and agriculture (BFA). It complements other global assessments prepared under the auspices of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which have focused on the state of genetic resources within particular sectors of food and agriculture.
Biodiversity for food and agriculture (BFA) is the biodiversity that in one way or another contributes to agriculture and food production. It includes not only the domesticated crops and livestock raised by farmers and livestock keepers, the trees planted and harvested by forest dwellers and the aquatic species harvested or raised by fishers and aquaculture practitioners, but also the myriad other species of plants, animals and micro-organisms that underpin production, whether by creating and maintaining healthy soils, pollinating plants, purifying water, providing protection against extreme weather events, enabling ruminant animals to digest fibrous plant materials or delivering any of a range of other vital services.
The Report addresses the sustainable use, development and conservation of BFA worldwide. BFA is taken to include the diversity of animals, plants and micro-organisms at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels that sustain structures, functions and processes in and around production systems and provide food and non-food agricultural products. It also includes wild species (beyond the already-noted harvested aquatic species and forest trees) that are harvested for food and for other purposes. Finally, it includes micro-organisms used in food processing and in various agro-industrial processes.
The significance of BFA in efforts to cope with the effects of climate change has received increasing attention in recent years. For example, the Resilience Outcome Document of the twenty-third session of the Conference (COP23) of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2017 recognized that “nature is central to climate resilience. The protection, sustainable management and restoration of terrestrial and marine ecosystems are the main elements for adaptation and resilience to a changing climate”
According to the SoW-BFA Report, climate change is considered by countries to be having a negative effect on biodiversity for food and agriculture and ecosystem services in all production systems.
Direct impacts include those caused by changes in rainfall, temperature and the frequencies of events such as droughts, cyclones/hurricanes, floods, fires and early or late frosts and by changes in plant flowering seasons and growing periods, animal breeding seasons, the oxidation rate of soil organic matter and the ranges and population dynamics of invasive species, pests, pathogens and disease vectors. Indirect impacts include those associated with climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.
For example, rising temperatures in the tropics are pushing coffee growing towards higher elevations in mountainous areas, leading to replacement of natural vegetation. This exposes more soil to erosion and degradation and affects water regulation, habitat provisioning and other ecosystem services.The ranges of some important pests, such as the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), have also extended to higher elevations – for example in East Africa − prompting coffee farmers to spray pesticides in newly opened highland environments. Irrigation to counter the effects of a drier climate or more erratic rainfall may disrupt river flows and lead to negative effects on fisheries.