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Mainstreaming biodiversity in production landscapes ensures conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity, the key objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the projects supported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Global Environment Facility (GEF). Mainstreaming integrates biodiversity in existing or new programs and policies, both cross-sectoral and sector-specific. The conventional model of agricultural production with limited diversity in production systems and use of high chemical input has taught us a valuable lesson as it is adversely impacting the environment, the essential ecosystem services, the soil health and the long term sustainability of our food systems. Using a qualitative participant observation approach, our study investigated four distinct traditional Indian production landscapes to gage (i) the farming communities’ response to institutional policies, programs and agricultural biodiversity-related activities in traditional Indian production landscapes and (ii) opportunities and challenges for sustainable development in smallholder traditional Indian farming systems. Results indicate that the top-down decision-making regime is the least effective towards achieving sustainable development in traditional Indian farming landscapes and that farmers’ experiential knowledge on participatory biodiversity management, maintenance and use for sustainable development are of critical importance to India’s agriculture and economy. Reclaiming agriculture’s spiritual roots through organic farming and locally grown food emerged as key, including the need for designing and implementing a more sovereign food system. Revisiting traditional smallholder farming under the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons learned for repurposing India’s agricultural policy are also highlighted.

The paper finds that agricultural biodiversity conservation generates several types of benefits, which are realized by different groups in society and over time. The nature and distribution of benefits is an important basis for prioritizing, designing, and financing conservation programs. Maintaining a high level of agricultural biodiversity has been found to have high use values to farm populations in highly heterogeneous and marginal production areas, and many of these areas will also likely be significant providers of option and existence values from in situ conservation. An important means of achieving efficient and equitable agricultural biodiversity conservation is identification of areas where there are high potential productivity gains to be made from increasing and enhancing the diversity available to farmers, as well as those which are likely to provide the highest option values of conservation and targeting these for priority under conservation funding. We have also discussed the effectiveness of various types of payment mechanisms for conservation, depending on the supplier and consumer of the good, as well as its nature. A key theme throughout our discussion has been the importance of recognizing human knowledge as a key component of agricultural biodiversity and, thus, the necessity of incorporating means for knowledge preservation as much as the physical conservation of agricultural biodiversity.

The ecosystem approach—as endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB) in 2000—is a strategy for holistic, sustainable, and equitable natural resource management, to be implemented via the 12 Malawi Principles. These principles describe the need to manage nature in terms of dynamic ecosystems, while fully engaging with local peoples. It is an ambitious concept. Today, the term is common throughout the research and policy literature on environmental management. However, multiple meanings have been attached to the term, resulting in confusion. We reviewed references to the ecosystem approach from 1957 to 2012 and identified 3 primary uses: as an alternative to ecosystem management or ecosystem-based management; in reference to an integrated and equitable approach to resource management as per the CBD; and as a term signifying a focus on understanding and valuing ecosystem services. Although uses of this term and its variants may overlap in meaning, typically, they do not entirely reflect the ethos of the ecosystem approach as defined by the CBD. For example, there is presently an increasing emphasis on ecosystem services, but focusing on these alone does not promote decentralization of management or use of all forms of knowledge, both of which are integral to the CBD’s concept. We highlight that the Malawi Principles are at risk of being forgotten. To better understand these principles, more effort to implement them is required. Such efforts should be evaluated, ideally with comparative approaches, before allowing the CBD’s concept of holistic and socially engaged management to be abandoned or superseded. It is possible that attempts to implement all 12 principles together will face many challenges, but they may also offer a unique way to promote holistic and equitable governance of natural resources. Therefore, we believe that the CBD’s concept of the ecosystem approach demands more attention.La Necesidad de Desenredar Conceptos Clave del Argot Ambiente-EstrategiaResumenLa estrategia ambiental – como es promocionada por la Convención Biológica sobre Diversidad en 2000 – es una estrategia para un manejo holístico, sustentable y equitativo de recursos naturales, que habrá de implementarse por vía de los 12 Principios de Malawi. Estos principios describen la necesidad de manejar la naturaleza en términos de ecosistemas dinámicos, mientras se compromete totalmente con las personas locales. Es un concepto ambicioso. Hoy en día, el término es común en la investigación y la literatura de políticas sobre el manejo ambiente. Sin embargo, se han relacionado múltiples significados con el término, lo que resulta en confusión. Revisamos referencias a la estrategia ambiental de 1957 a 2012 e identificamos tres usos principales: como una alternativa para manejo ambiental o basado en ecosistemas; en referencia a una estrategia integrada y equitativa para el manejo de recursos según la CBD; y como un término que indica un enfoque en el entendimiento y la valuación de los servicios ambientales. Aunque los usos de este término y sus variantes pueden traslaparse en su significado, típicamente no reflejan en su totalidad los valores de la estrategia ambiental como fue definida por la CBD. Por ejemplo, actualmente hay un énfasis creciente en los servicios ambientales, pero enfocarse solamente en estos no promueve la descentralización del manejo o el uso de todas las formas de conocimiento, siendo ambas integrales para el concepto de la CBD. Resaltamos que los Principios de Malawi están en riesgo de ser olvidados. Para entender mejor estos principios, se requiere de más esfuerzo para implementarlos. Dichos esfuerzos deben ser evaluados, idóneamente con estrategias comparativas, antes de permitir que el concepto de la CBD de manejo holístico y comprometido socialmente sea abandonado o reemplazado. Es posible que los intentos por implementar los 12 principios juntos enfrentarán muchos obstáculos, pero también pueden ofrecer una forma única de promover el gobierno holístico y equitativo de los recursos naturales. Así, creemos que el concepto de estrategia ambiental de la CBD exige mayor atención.

Underprotected Marine Protected Areas in a Global Biodiversity Hotspot

Integrated spatial planning for biodiversity conservation and food production

Importance of biological diversity is accepted by all the sectors dealing with biological objects. The term is not only restricted to plant and animal genetic resources, insects and other flora and fauna elements in the ecosystem, but also all diversity among elements of natural habitats that pertain to food production. Agrobiodiversity makes it possible for farmers to recycle nutrients, to reduce disease and pest problems, to control weeds, and to handle climatic stress conditions more efficiently. Although it has several benefits, biodiversity is being seriously eroded by mainly anthropogenic effects and agricultural developments. Several conventions have been signed to prevent biodiversity losses both at habitat and key species level. Nevertheless Convention on Biological Diversity is the most comprehensive of all rather than approaching the concept in a sectoral basis. This article was intended to give fundamental information about the Convention to the researchers dealing with biological objects and to the decision makers working at agricultural and environmental sectors.

Access to biodiversity for food production: Reconciling open access digital sequence information with access and benefit sharing

Establishing systems of protected areas (PAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) is a key strategy to reversing biodiversity loss (CBD SBSTA, 2021; Maxwell et al., 2020). As part of its mandate to safeguard biodiversity, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) provided clear international targets on establishing PAs and OECMs in 2010. Aichi Target 11 called for the protection of 10% of marine and 17% of terrestrial areas globally (CBD, 2010). These percentages were interim targets to encourage ambition while ensuring tractability and not necessarily based on conservation needs (Woodley et al. 2019). There is general consensus that the percentages behind Target 11 were insufficient to protect all important aspects of Earth's biodiversity. Proposed replacement percentages range from 28% to 80%, depending on the desired outcome (Butchart et al., 2015, Dinerstein et al. 2019, Woodley et al. 2019, Jones et al., 2020). As the CBD finalizes its post-2020 strategic plan - the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) - there is consensus that it must include more ambitious area-based targets paired with stronger implementation mechanisms (Visconti et al., 2019; Maxwell et al., 2020). Most lessons learned from the outcomes of Aichi Target 11 relate to the suitability of its environmental targets, potentially obscuring how it affected social equity (the absence of avoidable and unfair cost and benefit distributions) (McDermott et al., 2013). The power to implement CBD targets lies with countries through their national biodiversity strategic and action plans (NBSAPs). Whether targets are achieved equitably depends on decision-makers within national borders. However, global conservation is inherently a transboundary pursuit; costs of environmental degradation and benefits of conservation spill over borders (Mason et al., 2020; Roberson et al., 2020). Geopolitical states have high variability in the numbers of threatened species and habitats within their borders and varied abilities to conserve based on financial capacities, conflict, and collective attitudes toward conservation. These realities require consideration of equity beyond the local scale to equity among geopolitical states in global conservation efforts (Sarkki & Garcia, 2019). To date, the CBD has emphasized equitable benefit sharing, or the fair distribution of benefits from the harvest or study of biological resources (Nagoya Protocol). There has been less emphasis on equitable cost-sharing, which includes direct costs of establishing and managing PAs and opportunity costs of not undertaking certain economic activities (e.g., agriculture) in PAs (Naidoo & Iwamura, 2007). Costs pose significant short-term barriers to halting biodiversity loss (Waldron et al., 2013; Maxwell et al., 2020). Once adequate financing and equitable cost-sharing are achieved, long-term revenues and ecosystem services of most PAs are projected to exceed implementation and opportunity costs (Waldron et al., 2020). However, interventions are still needed to alleviate the short-term costs certain groups may bear. Although the CBD does not legally require that countries implement equitable cost-sharing, finalization of the GBF presents an opportunity to apply social equity concepts to its revised area-based conservation strategy for just and effective implementation. We highlighted this opportunity by identifying lessons learned from Aichi Target 11 through the lens of social equity theory. We then devised recommendations on how to approach equitable cost-sharing among countries for PAs in the post-2020 GBF.

Achieving global biodiversity goals by 2050 requires urgent and integrated actions

Agricultural biodiversity conservation and its availability for use are central to robust seed systems that support food security, poverty eradication and resilience to climate change. Recognising that smallholder farmers source seed of different qualities from a diversity of seed systems has resulted in the Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) approach that supports the development of a pluralistic seed sector, which provides smallholder farmers with quality seed of the varieties they desire. The focus of the ISSD approach on the importance of different seed sources to cater for the diversity in demand by farmers offers also opportunities for better and more balanced support for both in situ and ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources, and strengthened use of agricultural biodiversity on farmers’ fields and in both community and commercial seed development programmes.

To Achieve Big Wins for Terrestrial Conservation, Prioritize Protection of Ecoregions Closest to Meeting Targets

In an era of a rapidly shrinking biological resources, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a historic landmark, being the first global agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. The CBD is one of the few international agreements in the area of natural resource conservation in which sustainability and equitable benefit-sharing are central concerns. The CBD links traditional conservation efforts to the economic goal of using biological resources sustainably and sets forth principles for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources, notably those destined for commercial use. Importantly, the CBD also gives traditional knowledge its due place in the sustainable use of genetic resources. The CBD also covers the rapidly expanding field of biotechnology, addressing technology development and transfer, benefit-sharing and biosafety, in an equitable framework. In the coming years, the CBD is likely to have major repercussions on the way biodiversity is conserved and benefits thereof, shared between the developing and developed worlds. The following commentary on the CBD has drawn heavily from a document produced by Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, at the United Nations Environment Programme. Articles 1 to 21 of the CBD have also been reproduced here in order to disseminate knowledge regarding the principles of the CBD-Editor.

A chapter on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) fits perfectly in an edited volume dedicated to multilateral institutions. Indeed, the CBD is not an international organization, if one defines international organizations strictly as demonstrating autonomy and permanence. It rather follows the definition of an international regime, organized around a core framework convention. More precisely, the CBD was adopted during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, as the sister convention to the climate convention (see Chapter 13, this volume). While the CBD is not, strictly speaking, an international organization, it presents at least three features that are of particular interest and places the CBD in the category of noteworthy multilateral institutions. Firstly, while in theory just a treaty, the CBD has gained autonomy over time, with a small but active secretariat based in Montreal (and consequently distant from UNEP headquarters) described as a “lean shark” (Siebenhuner, 2009). Secondly, the CBD is one of the most dynamic global environmental treaties (with nearly universal membership, a notable exception being the United States), in contrast to the climate convention. Indeed, the CBD has deepened its work on biodiversity and regularly adopted new protocols, such as the Cartagena Protocol in 2000 or the Nagoya Protocol in 2010, one of the latest multilateral environmental agreements to have been adopted worldwide. Thirdly, the CBD demonstrates dynamism by also recently engaging in the estab-lishment of its own policy-science platform (following the model of the IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that was created in April 2012 as the IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services).

This study was conducted in Imburu Ward, Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria to assess the role of local communities in agricultural diversity conservation. Background characteristics of households showed that farmers above 50 years of age were the most dominant group involved in agricultural biodiversity conservation. These were mostly males who had no formal education. Results on main crops grown showed that vegetables were cultivated by almost every household (80%), followed by sorghum with 75%, while rice was the lowest with 10%. Information on crops and crop varieties grown showed that most households in the study area cultivated between 1 and 2 varieties, with few households cultivating less than 2 varieties. There is need to harness and utilise the synergy that exists between modern practices of improving agricultural biodiversity and local knowledge and skills so that food supply and resource base of rural communities are alleviated. Keywords: Conservation, Local knowledge, agriculture, biodiversity, crops, Nigeria

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is one of the successful international treaties that is steadily progressing with the realization of its stated objectives. Conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of biological resources and equitable sharing of benefits with the people for utilization of their traditional knowledge and resources are gaining global acceptance. When the CBD addresses the larger issues of global biodiversity conservation and utilization of biological resources for developmental purposes, the specific problems concerning biosafety brought out by biotechnology, and access and benefit sharing are left to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing, respectively. The Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress emerging out of living modified organisms is the latest addition under the CBD. India, being one of the oldest surviving civilizations with indigenous people and their wisdom and as one of the megadiverse countries, has high stakes in conserving biological diversity and protecting the traditional knowledge base of its indigenous and local communities. India has many domestic legal and policy instruments to govern biodiversity and biosafety issues. This chapter critically looks at the international legal obligations for India under the CBD as well as the Cartagena Protocol, Nagoya Protocol and the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol and evaluates the level of their domestic implementation in India. Recently, the Government of India has ratified both the Protocols under the CBD, and many changes are expected in the domestic regulatory frameworks. This chapter will examine the effectiveness of existing domestic regulatory mechanisms and the alternative options available to India in implementing the CBD and its Protocols.