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Bioversity welcomes the International Year of Biodiversity
The International Year of Biodiversity officially launched in Berlin this week. In this short video Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, welcomes the UN's initiative and offers his thoughts on why the world cannot afford to ignore agricultural biodiversity.
International Year of Biodiversity must include agricultural biodiversity
For immediate release
Rome, Italy
With the official launch of the International Year of Biodiversity scheduled for 11 January 2010 in Berlin, Germany, Emile Frison, the Director General of Bioversity International, warns that there is much more to biodiversity than whales and panda bears.
“Any discussion of biodiversity conservation needs to remember that the diversity of crops and livestock is absolutely fundamental to human survival and well-being,” Frison said. “Agricultural biodiversity is not only vital for nutrition, it is also indispensable in meeting the challenges of climate change and in lifting poor people out of poverty.”
For too long, conservationists have tended to view farmers and farming as the enemy. While in many cases that may be true, the International Year of Biodiversity offers a great opportunity to work towards more productive food systems based on biodiversity and a more ecological approach to agriculture.
“Increased productivity so far has been based on simplifying farming systems,” Frison noted. “We need to move beyond that to intensification without simplification, and that requires us to research, understand and make better use of agricultural biodiversity.”
Bioversity research has shown how neglected and under-utilized species can deliver better nutrition and health, at the same time protecting the environment and increasing incomes. It is also pinpointing the impact of predicted changes in climate on crops and suggesting new sources of material that will help farmers adapt to new weather patterns.
This research – and much else – will be showcased in a weeklong celebration of biodiversity in Rome. Taking place at the famed Auditorium from 19-23 May 2010, the Settimana della Biodiversità (Biodiversity Week) will bring together an array of experts and celebrities from around the world for a series of public lectures, round table discussions, exhibits, demonstrations and celebrations. Workshops for children will be part of this effort to acquaint the wider public with the importance of biodiversity – including agricultural biodiversity – in their daily lives.
The Settimana della Biodiversità is just one element in Diversity for Life, a global campaign by Bioversity and its partners to familiarise the public and policy-makers alike with the importance of agricultural biodiversity for humanity and for environmental protection.
With more than 35 years of experience researching the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity, Bioversity International is looking forward to other opportunities to showcase agriculture in the context of the International Year of Biodiversity.
“Of course ensuring the survival of whales and pandas is important,” said Emile Frison, “and so is the protection of rainforests and coral reefs. But in this International Year of Biodiversity we really must realise that only agricultural biodiversity directly enables us to survive so that we can protect and appreciate all the other biodiversity nature has to offer. Agricultural biodiversity is the basis of true food security.”
Note to Editors: Bioversity International is the largest organization in the world researching the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity. For more than 35 years, in collaboration with global partners, it has provided the knowledge necessary to make full use of agricultural biodiversity to improve productivity and nutrition, to enhance livelihoods, to respond to environmental challenges and to deliver true food security.
For more information contact Jeremy Cherfas
Anno Internazionale della Biodiversità: nel 2010 più attenzione alla biodiversità in agricoltura.
Per immediata pubblicazione
Roma 8/01/2010
Si apre ufficialmente l’11 Gennaio a Berlino l’anno Internazionale per la Biodiversità voluto dalle Nazioni Unite per aumentare la consapevolezza delle molte funzioni che la biodiversità svolge per assicurare la vita sulla Terra.
“E’ necessario che nel discorso sulla tutela e la conservazione della biodiversità non si dimentichi il ruolo fondamentale che la biodiversità agraria ha nel garantire la salute e la sicurezza alimentare delle popolazioni”, commenta il Direttore Generale di Bioversity International Emile Frison.
Non si tratta solamente di compilare una lista delle specie in pericolo, ma di fare in modo che la ricerca in agricoltura tenga conto dell’immenso potenziale della diversità genetica delle colture per assicurare raccolti migliori e più sicuri e per far fronte al cambiamento climatico.
Tradizionalmente lo sviluppo agricolo è stato considerato uno dei maggiori nemici della conservazione della biodiversità e delle specie selvatiche. Ma è arrivato il momento di cercare nuovi approcci che possano conciliare un’agricoltura produttiva con la tutela degli ecosistemi, mantenendo la complessità e la ricchezza genetica delle specie agricole, sia quelle coltivate che selvatiche.
“Il 2010 è l’anno in cui ci auguriamo di vedere la biodiversità agraria di nuovo sulle tavole e nei campi degli abitanti del pianeta, esattamente dove essa può esprimere il suo maggiore potenziale”, afferma il Dr. Frison.
E’ per questo motivo che il 2010 rappresenta l’anno di punta di “Diversity for Life”, la campagna globale di sensibilizzazione lanciata da Bioversity International in collaborazione con partner nazionali e internazionali che ha lo scopo di avvicinare le persone all’immenso patrimonio di biodiversità presente in agricoltura e di far scoprire al grande pubblico il suo valore per la vita dell’uomo e per la tutela dell’ambiente.
In Italia, l’evento centrale della campagna sarà la Settimana della Biodiversità, dal 19 al 23 Maggio all’Auditorium Parco della Musica di Roma, un festival internazionale della Biodiversità che prevede lectio magistralis di grandi scienziati e personalità, tavole rotonde, concerti, mostre e laboratori per bambini. Esperti, accademici, economisti, scrittori, cuochi e artisti di fama mondiale saranno coinvolti per spiegare come e quanto la biodiversità permea ogni settore della vita umana e ne sia una componente fondamentale.
Si svolgerà poi nel 2010 il progetto “Cibi e Parole dal Passato”, un’iniziativa che coinvolge alunni delle scuole primarie e secondarie di vari paesi del mondo perché raccolgano testimonianze dai propri nonni e dagli anziani su come sono cambiate le abitudini alimentari ed i cibi che troviamo in tavola negli ultimi 50 anni. Le storie orali raccolte saranno inserite in un’enciclopedia elettronica disponibile su internet, che costituirà una risorsa per gli studenti di tutti il mondo per conoscere le tradizioni alimentari delle diverse culture. Attualmente il progetto coinvolge circa 700 ragazzi in Italia in 3 regioni (Lazio, Marche, Veneto) e 500 studenti in Kenya sia in zone rurali sia urbane.
Forte della sua più che trentennale esperienza come centro di ricerca internazionale sulla biodiversità in agricoltura, Bioversity rinnova inoltre il suo impegno nella ricerca sulla biodiversità a favore dei Paesi più poveri: molte le conferenze e i convegni internazionali previsti per il 2010, tra i quali il II Simposio Internazionale sulle Risorse Genetiche delle Piante, a Bologna nell’Aprile del 2010.
Per maggiori informazioni contattare
Cecilia Preite Martinez
c.pmartinez(at)cgiar.org
Bioversity welcomes historic CGIAR decisions
Rome, Italy
Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity, returned from the historic CGIAR Business Meeting in Washington DC, enthusiastic for the changes now adopted by the CGIAR.
"The decisions taken will mean that we can focus on research for agricultural development knowing that donors will support our efforts and that those efforts will be more efficient. I am looking forward to a new era in which all the CGIAR centres work closely together for the benefit of the poor. For Bioversity, the CGIAR's decisions give fresh impetus to our work with all our partners to use agricultural biodiversity to deliver true food security."
Full details of the CGIAR decisions and new structures can be at the CGIAR Change Management web site. Details of the Business Meeting are at the CGIAR web site.
Director General calls for investment in "true food security"
Rome, Italy, for immediate release.
Dr Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity, today addressed the plenary session of the World Food Summit at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. In his remarks, reproduced in full below, he stressed the importance of research into the use of agricultural biodiversity to deliver true food security.
More diverse agriculture delivers a more diverse diet, which is vital for nutrition and health and delivers many other benefits, he told the Summit.
Mr Chairman, Your Excellencies, Honourable Heads of States, Distinguished delegates:
I am speaking to you today as Director General of Bioversity International, one of the 15 agricultural research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
We need to recognise that a more food secure world requires both short and long-term investments. The world has responded well to the emergencies that face it, but reliable long-term investments – which will help to reduce the need for emergency interventions in future – have been much more difficult to mobilize.
I welcomed the pledges made at the High Level Conference here last June and more recently the increased investments that world leaders agreed at L'Aquila. I have also been pleased to hear many speakers here -- starting with the UN Secretary General himself -- refer to the absolutely central role of smallholder farmers.
These are the people on whom food security depends, and we need to invest in them.
Any discussion of increasing food security needs to look at it in all its dimensions. Too often policies talk about the quantity of food -- is there enough? -- without also talking about the quality – is it good, nutritious food?
Food security is about the dietary needs and food preferences of people, so that they have access to a diet that enables them to live an active and healthy life. And yet, even in developing countries that are not suffering acute hunger, we are seeing a simplification of diets associated with an explosion in the incidence of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancers, an explosion that makes a mockery of the phrase “diseases of affluence”.
These are not diseases of affluence. They are diseases of poverty, the poverty of diets that are energy rich but nutrient poor, that contain enough calories and protein, maybe even too much, and yet lack the essential vitamins and other micronutrients essential for a healthy life.
Food security requires us to diversify agriculture to ensure balanced diets that meet peoples' needs.
Diversified agriculture brings other benefits too. It makes smallholder farming more sustainable. Efforts to increase production, which have been vitally important, have so far been based on simplified systems that depend on a few varieties of even fewer crops. They require massive injections of energy-dependent inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides. These simplified systems are vulnerable to shocks and are intrinsically unsustainable.
We need to create resilient systems that do not overly depend on energy-requiring inputs.
Another benefit. Not only are diversified farming systems more sustainable, they also reduce the vulnerability of poor farmers. They minimize the risk of catastrophic harvest failures caused by droughts or floods, by extremes of temperature and by outbreaks of pests and diseases, all of which will be exacerbated by climate change.
Most smallholder farmers seek to minimise risks, not to maximise productivity. Diverse farming systems help them to do so.
Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, if we want to diminish the impact of future emergencies, we need to change our paradigm and invest in the agricultural research and development that will deliver intensification without simplification. We need locally adapted models based on agro-ecological principles and making full use of a wide range of crop and livestock diversity.
I should point out that this is not a return to old-style farming. It embraces scientific research to deliver both higher harvests and greater sustainability with all the benefits I outlined a moment ago.
I urge developing countries and donor countries alike to embrace this opportunity and to significantly increase their investments in research and development based on this new paradigm. That will deliver true food security.
Madam Chairman, I am also pleased to report that the reform of the CGIAR will be completed in two weeks time. The reinvigorated CGIAR should be supported to deliver on the challenge of food security and climate change and to play an active role in reformed Committee on World Food Security.
I thank you for your attention.
