This year, the International Day for Biological Diversity is being celebrated with a special focus on Biodiversity and Climate Change.

Climate change is already a reality and is threatening the diversity of the earth’s plants and animals. This in turn is compromising global efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger.

Conserving biodiversity and maintaining the integrity of ecosystems are essential to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly the first goal aimed at halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. Poor rural people in particular are vulnerable to the impact of climate change and changing ecosystems, especially those living in exposed and marginal areas such as floodplains, hillsides and arid or semi-arid lands. They often depend heavily and directly on biodiversity to support their livelihoods. For example, poor families can depend on common property resources such as fish, grazing lands or forests for their income and to meet basic needs.

In the past, ecosystems have adapted to changing conditions, but the current rate of change is faster than anything the world has experienced, and many species will not be able to adapt. Up to one million species may become extinct as a result of climate change. 

Biodiversity is crucial for the maintenance and improvement of food security. For agricultural systems to be productive and sustainable, it is essential to have clean water, healthy soil, and to conserve and maintain a variety of genetic resources and ecological processes.

IFAD-sponsored programmes are helping poor farmers and indigenous peoples contribute to the preservation of species and ecosystems. “Biodiversity is part of much of IFAD’s work, both through our grants to research partners and through our projects with poor rural people,” said Alessandro Meschinelli, IFAD Research Officer. “When people are encouraged to value local diversity and the related knowledge, it not only improves their income and nutrition, it also bolsters their self esteem.”

Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, 189 countries have committed to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 “as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth.”

The convention was adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Today, the connection between biodiversity and the fight against rural poverty is clearer than ever. Poor rural people account for about 75 per cent of the 986 million living on less than $1-a-day. Many depend on native plants and animals to survive. In rural Zimbabwe, for example, wild products provide 37 per cent of total household income. In dryland India, wild products provide up to 23 per cent of income for the rural poor during normal times. During periods of drought, this rises to as much as 57 per cent of income.

When biodiversity is lost, it is often the poor who suffer most.  Plants and animals can take centuries to adapt to harsh environments. Some local plants protect soil from erosion. Others are particularly well suited to their native climates. When local biodiversity is compromised, so are the livelihoods of local, rural people.

In Niger’s arid Sahel region, for example, the Faidherbia albida tree captures nitrogen from the air and transfers it to the soil. It loses it leaves during the rainy season, so that it does not compete with food crops for essential nutrients. When the leaves fall, they act as fertilizer for food crops. 

For years, farmers cut down these trees for fuel or to clear their land for pasture. Without the trees, the land became unproductive and crops failed. An IFAD-sponsored project has encouraged farmers to find effective ways to protect these trees. As a result, the income of farmers who have cultivated their Faidherbia albida trees is rising.

In Asia, IFAD has supported projects to help farmers make the most of local coconut varieties, setting up community-managed coconut seedling nurseries, training farmers on various income-generating technologies and helping farmers gain access to the market for high value products derived from the nuts.

IFAD has a special interest in supporting indigenous peoples. Natural resources play a central role in the lives of many indigenous peoples, for their subsistence and for spiritual needs. Indigenous women, in particular, have rich and varied local knowledge about ecosystem management, medicinal plants and local crops. Given the increasing commercial focus on medicinal plants, organic foods and hand-woven fabrics, maintaining biodiversity has become more important than ever to the potential for economic and social well being of indigenous peoples.  

Supporting research into biodiversity
IFAD has been involved in several joint projects with Biodiversity International, the world’s largest research organization dedicated solely to the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. The latest of these initiatives focuses on using neglected and under-utilized species. By improving the use and marketing of these species, the project will empower the poor, strengthen their sense of identity, generate income opportunities and improve nutrition.

As biodiversity resources become increasingly central to the achievement of the first Millennium Development Goal, these same resources are facing increasing threats from climate change. It is, therefore crucial that there is integrated management of biodiversity and climate change within poverty reduction strategies and food security if MDG1 is to be met.

IFAD also has a number of projects that specifically address climate change. One such programme is in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of China. It is designed to make use of the abundant solar potential in the region by piloting grid-connected solar systems and provide stand alone home solar systems to provide energy to isolated, poor households.

Through projects such as this, and through better education and understanding of the importance of biodiversity, we may be able to have a positive impact on life on our planet.