Synergies between chemicals and biodiversity conventions
Biodiversity and ecosystem services are at the heart of many solutions to sustainable increases in agricultural productivity that deliver not only better food and nutrition security but also reduce negative externalities of production. Approaches that can address both the negative externalities of conventional production systems and the challenges of resource-poor farmers have a central common thread: they recognize that agriculture and food systems are biological and social systems. They can be designed to build upon and harness the forces of biodiversity and ecosystem services to underpin sustainable agricultural production – soil fertility, natural pest control, pollination, water retention – so that these are optimized and encouraged.
Mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem services into agricultural production, and providing alternatives to unsustainable agricultural practices, is key to achieve FAO Strategic Objective 2: to increase and improve provision of goods and services from agriculture, forestry and fisheries in a sustainable manner.