Agrobiodiversity — the way to save earth’s skin

Humans depend on a thin planetary ‘skin’ made up of life in all its diversity: biodiversity. Agriculture now covers the largest portion (46%) of the global land surface area; its ecological health and resilience in the face of changing climate is therefore critical to human survival. The biodiversity found within agricultural and wild systems is what sustains us. But this agrobiodiversity is being rapidly eroded by a spiralling cycle of inequality driven by economic forces and power politics.

Smallholders and Indigenous Peoples maintain most of the world’s remaining agrobiodiversity. Forest and farm producer organisations (FFPOs) and Indigenous Peoples and local community groups have developed at least five strategies and 18 tactics to incentivise and sustain agrobiodiversity conservation. It is time that governments and official development partners offer them greater recognition, finance and policy support.