Research
Experts call for action to address the loss of knowledge about plants
Concerned by the alarming loss of plant species, on 1-2 May international experts met in St Louis, USA, calling for a concerted worldwide effort to address the loss of essential knowledge about plants and their uses, especially at the level of local communities.
Zooming in on nutrition-sensitive landscapes
At Nutrition-sensitive landscapes, a CIFOR and ICRAF organized side-event at the Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition, Bioversity International's researcher Céline Termote spoke about putting people at the centre of the landscapes approach: "Food is an expression of their culture, we must not forget that," she said. Photo: CIFOR
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Sustainable agriculture
Children in Ethiopia face an uncertain future. Will their agriculture sustain them? Photo T. Wolday/Bioversity.
There are many, many definitions of sustainability, each of which has something to recommend it. Perhaps the most useful is from The Brundtland Report (1997), which defines sustainable development as:
"Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
The United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2001 and the setting of the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015 have significantly increased awareness of poverty and hunger:
- Goal No. 1 aims to halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2015.
- Goal No. 7 aims to reduce biodiversity loss and rates of deforestation, and requires a response to climate change.
The challenge remains to integrate the diverse levels and timescales of sustainable development to address the needs of people today while protecting the resources that will support life in the future.
Sustainable agriculture has to be cohesive at environmental, economic and socio-cultural levels. The work of Bioversity International supports all three aspects through projects that:
- Assess and promote ex situ and in situ crop diversity
- Investigate and integrate market forces
- Support participatory plant breeding and cultural/dietary diversity.
 | Bioversity International is a member of the CGIAR consortium |
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This work by Bioversity International is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. |
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