This is the title of an international workshop organised by Missouri Botanical Gardens and the William Brown Center, in St Louis, USA on 1–2 May 2013.

The experts convened for the meeting considered the ways in which the global crisis of the loss of tens of thousands of plant species, especially those useful to people, can be addressed. These threatened plants include species vital to the lives of people throughout the world, including plants used for food and nutrition, medicine, cultural and spiritual purposes, and the maintenance of livelihoods; they are needed to redress poverty, provide food security, and ensure sustainable development in many nations. The experts recognised the essential role that plants and their associated biocultural knowledge play in the ecosystem services that support all life on Earth. A major outcome of the meeting was the statement “A Global Program on Conservation of Useful Plants and Traditional Knowledge: A Call to Action“, in which an appeal to the international community to address the tragic loss of plant diversity and makes a call for the development of a concerted effort worldwide to address the loss of essential knowledge about plants and their uses, especially at the level of local communities.

Steering Committe meeting
Thursday 21 Feb 2013

The PAR Steering Committee met on 21 February, 2013 by kind invitation of FAO in Rome.

Minutes of the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research 2nd Steering Committee meeting (21 February 2013)

Documents circulated

1. PAR SC Agenda 2013
2. PAR Activities Report 2012-13

Presentations

1. Agrobiodiversity, Land and People (Dunja Mijatovic)
2. Agrobiodiversity and Climate Change (Paul Bordoni)
3. PAR web site, its initiatives and other communication tools (Paul Bordoni and Urska Merc)

3-4 June – Beijing, China

The Symposium’s objectives are:

• To review and share experiences and knowledge on the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity,
• To identify opportunities for research collaboration on the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity for improving smallholder farming household livelihoods through the provision of better ecosystem services.

Expected outputs

• Knowledge and experiences in managing agricultural biodiversity for agroecological intensification, sustainable farming systems and efficient ecosystem services reviewed, understood and shared among participants
• Approaches, protocols, methodologies and practices shared, reviewed and improvements suggested
• Priority areas for research collaboration and actions on conservation through use of agricultural biodiversity identified and recommended.

The four sessions will deal with

1. Overview of status, issues, challenges and opportunities for use and management of agricultural biodiversity in agroecological intensification
2. Use of genetic diversity to manage biotic and abiotic stresses to intensify production systems under environmental change
3. Deployment of agricultural biodiversity in sustainable farming systems and production landscapes for better ecosystem services
4. Custodian farmers: the role of local knowledge, gender and culture in managing agricultural biodiversity for resilient farming systems and agricultural landscapes

Organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Bioversity International and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)

Click here for a flyer and read more about the symposium

The gathering provided a context in which tribal people could share wider concerns about environmental sustainability, political sovereignty and preservation of traditional culture, further to interact with other conclave participants from the position of specialists and experts in their own field.

The report can be downloaded clicking on this link “Of Food, Culture and Identity” (pdf, 14 MB)
!! Please note that this is a heavy file and we will replace it with a web version as soon as we receive a low resolution one!!

For more information on Mahabaleshwar Conclave visit www.savethewesternghats.org

Issue 29.3 of Farming Matters will focus on the role of education in changing the mindsets of rural communities. We seek contributions that describe innovative education in rural areas. Who are involved? What is being taught? What teaching methods are used? What lessons are learned? And what makes these experiences valuable?

We will also look at how educators prepare themselves for their job in a fast changing world, what their aspirations are, how the education system supports and how they connect with different stakeholders in the agricultural system, such as farmers and other value chain actors, fellow educators, researchers and policy makers.

Read more about it here

Articles for the September issue of Farming Matters should be sent to Jorge Chavez-Tafur, editor, before June 1st, 2013. E-mail: j.chavez-tafurATileia.org

Deadline for submitting abstracts is 10 May

Abstracts for oral and poster presentations are invited on the below topics:

• Global and local analyses of food security
• Enabling policies for local and global food security
• Sustainable intensification of food production systems
• Novel ways of feeding 9 billion
• Learning from the past to understand the future
• Land sparing, land sharing and trade-offs
• Agricultural production as feedstock for renewables
• Lost harvest and wasted food
• Nutritional security
• Labelling, certifying and striving for quality and sustainability of food production

Go to http://globalfoodsecurityconference.com/ for more information on the conference and the online submission form.

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Sarah Doornbos
Knowledge Officer – Oxfam Novib and Hivos Knowledge Programme
www.hivos.net

GIAHS side event during CGRFA14
Wednesday 17 April 2013 13:00 – 15:00  – FAO Iran Room (B-116), Rome, Italy

CGRFA  and the GIAHS Initiative share  the common goal of  conserving biodiversity for food and agriculture and promoting its use in support of global food security and sustainable development, for present and future generations.

Over the past decade, FAO GIAHS Initiative has been piloting an innovative model for engaging communities, local and national governments in the adaptive management of agricultural heritage and conservation of system’s goods and services. It has served as learning laboratories for new ways to sustain nature’s bounty, ecosystems’ health, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and genetic resources for food and agriculture, protection of traditional knowledge system, culture, and more importantly, for building a bridge for the sustainable future.

The Side Event will feature humanity’s agricultural heritage systems and their importance to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity for food security and nutrition, and in revitalization of rural communities.

Programme

• Chair and Moderator: Mr  Parviz Koohafkan, GIAHS Partnership Coordinator

Panelists/presenters:

• Ms. Teresa Agüero, ODEPA, Chile
• Mr. Taisuke Ono, Vice Governor, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan
• Mr Pablo Eyzaguirre, Bioversity International
• Mr Shakeel bhatti, Secretary, ITPGRFA

Open Forum and  Discussions

Overcoming the threats to agriculture and food security in a changing climate requires a strong scientific evidence base to both help smallholder farmers choose resilient strategies and to guide development policy and investments.  Bioversity and CCAFS recently conducted a systematic review to explore the role of diversification in agricultural systems for increasing the resilience of smallholder farmers in confronting the risks associated with changing climates.

Building upon these initiatives, the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research is now hosting a new tool, the ReFARM (the Resilience Framework for Agriculture and Risk Management) Database, to feature hundreds of reviewed case studies, accommodate more as the effort expands, and allow easily searches according to different categories including scale, climate risks, types of diversifications, and outcome.

The database, currently and as it expands, will serve as a tool to search successful adaptation strategies based upon diversification, and identify best bet technologies to increase the overall resilience of agroecological systems. The ReFARM database will continue to build a dynamic knowledge base, as well as allow users to download the data directly for broader applications.  Case studies can be quickly screened according to a range of categories including region, scale, climate risks, diversification type and other management categories, along with other features of agricultural systems.  Practitioners who would like to contribute their own work are invited to submit a case directly through the site.

Follow the link to the web site ReFARM

Those interested in learning more scan use the contact form on ReFARM
or contact Paul Bordoni at paul.bordoniATagrobiodiversityplatform.org.

In 2007, the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture decided to assess the state of the world’s biodiversity for food and agriculture with a view to launch the first ever report on The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture in 2017.

This is an opportuntity to discuss the importance of improving our knowledge of biodiversity for food and agriculture and the challenges involved in doing this.

The programme for the meeting can seen here.

This information seminar offers government representatives, scientists, policy makers, civil society and other stakeholders the opportunity to exchange views on the status and contributions of biodiversity to food and nutrition security, human well-being and sustainability, and on the challenges to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the value of biodiversity for food and agriculture in all its different forms, including the often neglected components of biodiversity for food and agriculture, in providing benefits for society at large. The seminar will also address challenges related to the preparation of the first ever State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture (SoW-BFA) and its follow up.

The contribution of biodiversity for food and agriculture to food security and nutrition, sustainability and ecosystem services: Experiences from the field

Tuesday, 16 April 2013
13:00-15:00 hrs CEST in the Iran room (B-116), FAO, Rome.

PAR will facilitate this side event to the meetings of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA-14)

The focus will be on cross cutting aspects of the maintenance and use of agrobiodiversity and on the actions that can be supported to improve its contribution. The side event will describe the results obtained from recent GEF projects supported by  UNEP and FAO on soil, pollinators, livestock and tropical fruit tree diversity and will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss the experiences obtained in the context of the plans for preparing the first report of the State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture.

Speakers

• Pest and disease management through genetic diversity
  John Mulumba, NARO, Uganda
• Managing soil biodiversity to enhance soil productivity
  Jeroen Huising, CIAT/TSBF, Kenya
• Pollination as an ecosystem service to food security, nutrition and sustained production
  Barbara Herren, FAO, Rome, Italy

Facilitator/Chair

• Danny Hunter, Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research

Click for a flyer of the event

Refreshments will be provided
The meeting will take place in English only