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Biodiversity for food and agriculture is declining
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently launched the first State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture (BFA) Report. The report provides an assessment of biodiversity for food and agriculture (BFA) and its management worldwide.
In summary, the report shows that many key components of biodiversity for food and agriculture at ecosystem, and species level but also the genetic diversity within species are in decline.
The report describes the many contributions that BFA makes to food security, nutrition, livelihoods, the resilience of production systems, the sustainable intensification
of food production and the supply of multiple ecosystem services. Major drivers of change affecting BFA were identified, and status and trends of various components of BFA, the state of management of BFA, the state of policies, institutions and capacities, and needs and challenges in the management of BFA, have been assessed.
Monitoring programmes for biodiversity for food and agriculture remain limited, and there is a need to improve knowledge of associated biodiversity, in particular micro-organisms and invertebrates, and of its roles in the supply of ecosystem services.