28 January 2017: The Secretariat of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) held a Special Event on the ‘Contribution of Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture to Resilience.’ Participants considered how the biodiversity and ecosystem services on which agricultural production relies (farmed and non-farmed biodiversity) can protect food production from long-term environmental changes and shocks created by natural and man-made disasters.

Two panel sessions focused on the role of biodiversity for food and agriculture: for emergency relief during disasters; and for enhancing or maintaining the resilience of agricultural production systems given climate and other environmental change.

Approximately 120 participants comprised of government agencies, farmers, the private sector and civil society attended the Special Event. The group agreed to transmit several key messages to the sixteenth session of the CGRFA, including the need for: better metrics for biodiversity and approaches to quantify the role of biodiversity and traditional knowledge for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience; making genetic resource conservation an integral approach of agricultural resilience strategies; guidance on selecting, accessing and breeding appropriate genetic resources; more collaboration among agricultural sectors; investment in gene banks and breeding for DRR; and awareness raising. Participants also underlined that heterogeneous landscapes provide better buffers to disasters because they deliver a wider variety of ecosystem services.

On Monday, 30 January, the key messages were presented to the opening plenary of CGRFA 16. The session will continue until Friday, 3 February 2017 and will discuss, among other issues: the draft of the first report on the State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture (SOW-BFA); the draft of the first SoW on Aquatic Genetic Resources; the Commission’s work programme on climate change and genetic resources for food and agriculture (GRFA); and access and benefit sharing regarding GRFA.

The CGRFA serves as a permanent forum to discuss matters relevant to biodiversity and genetic resources (GR) important to agriculture. It addresses the conservation and sustainable use of GR in five sectors of agricultural production: plant GR, animal GR, forest GR, aquatic GR, and microorganisms and invertebrates. The Commission addresses these sectors in ten-year cycles during which it aims to publish a global assessment of the state of GR and adopt and implement a global plan of action in each sector. The publication of the first report on the State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture will mark the completion of the first ten-year cycle. [IISD RS Coverage of Special Event and CGRFA 16][CGRFA website] [Special Event Agenda] [CGRFA 16 Agenda]