008 - Developing agroecological practices as nature-based solutions
008 - Developing agroecological practices as nature-based solutions
ACKNOWLEDGING that agroecology is one of a number of innovative and sustainable approaches to achieve agricultural sustainability;
CONCERNED about the growing pressure on natural resources throughout the world, in particular on soils and water, and about significant loss of biodiversity, as well as climate change;
RECALLING that in this context it is necessary to improve the sustainability of food and agricultural systems, adapted to pedoclimatic conditions, producing sufficiently while improving the socio-economic and environmental performances of farms regardless of their size;
RECOGNISING the definition of nature-based solutions (NbS) adopted in Resolution 6.069 Defining Nature-based Solutions (Hawai‘i, 2016) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Resolution 7/2019 Further integration of sustainable agricultural approaches, including agroecology, in the future planning activities of FAO (Rome, 2019);
FURTHER RECOGNISING that NbS with safeguards can be efficient, cost-effective and that they offer an opportunity to enhance the resilience of ecosystems to climate change and to help accelerate the transition towards more sustainable food and systems;
ALSO RECOGNISING the positive environmental externalities generated by agroecological approaches;
WELCOMING the work of FAO on agroecology and RECALLING that, according to FAO, agroecology is based on applying ecological principles to optimise mutually beneficial interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment, while taking into consideration the economic and social aspects that need to be addressed for a sustainable and fair food system;
NOTING that agroecology includes a diversity of farm-based or landscape-based sustainable approaches and practices that intend to allow functional biodiversity, including the cultivated and domesticated component, to increase in agroecosystems, to strengthen regulatory ecosystem services and to close geochemical cycles; and
NOTING that several recent reports show that agroecology can contribute to the transition towards more sustainable food and agricultural systems;
1. REQUESTS the Secretariat to seek relevant funds and prepare a report on agroecological practices as nature-based solutions (NbS), focusing on the diversity of ecosystem services they provide, in the IUCN Programme 2021–2024, in collaboration with FAO, and on the basis of the recent reports linked to this theme of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE), FAO, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI), and other relevant reports;
2. FURTHER REQUESTS the Secretariat to support the dissemination and implementation of agroecological practices in its projects and programmes on the protection and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems;
3. RECOMMENDS that states, communities, indigenous peoples, local stakeholders, and industry develop, promote and incentivise the adoption of agroecological practices as NbS as appropriate and integrate them into their national policies, as part of sustainable food systems. Measures to promote agroecological approaches should be implemented by states consistently with their national and international obligations; and
4. ALSO RECOMMENDS that farmers, industry, and other value-chain and local stakeholders engage in actions for the transition towards agroecological practices as appropriate, as solutions to economic, environmental and social challenges of farms and landscapes, food insecurity, malnutrition and biodiversity loss.
