Three ways sustainable food systems boost biodiversity

Agriculture and biodiversity are often at odds. Growing food involves converting natural environments and emitting greenhouse gases, so it's no surprise our food systems are a major driver of biodiversity loss worldwide.

But that’s not the whole story. In fact, biodiversity can benefit from sustainable food systems – and farmers have the power to protect it. Here are three ways the people who grow our food can ensure a biodiverse future for us all.

Small-scale farms are dwarfed by the vast industrial farms that dominate global food production. Yet inside each of these tiny plots of land is an entire world.

Biodiversity is greater on small-scale farms, both in terms of the crops grown and the other species that thrive alongside them. This difference becomes even more pronounced when farmers use techniques like agroecology.

In semi-arid Chad, farmers working with PARSAT grow cereals and soil-conditioning plants side by side. They use crop by-products for animal fodder and the resulting manure to fertilize fields. In a resource-strained environment, this allows them to protect food security while maintaining the ecosystems that hold back the Sahara.

In Cambodia, meanwhile, small-scale farmers developed integrated farming systems with IFAD's support that were appropriate for their local landscapes. Using techniques like circular farming, they are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving biodiversity while producing enough food to eat and sell.

Large grazing animals, like cows, buffalo and sheep, are a natural part of many grassland ecosystems. By nibbling down grasses, they make way for diverse plants and wildflowers, create firebreaks and return nutrients to the earth through their dung.

When herds and pastures are poorly managed, however, wild ecosystems can be over-exploited. Livestock in Kyrgyzstan were once grazed nomadically through mountains and plains, ensuring no one pasture was overused, but as rural people settled the land became degraded.

With support from programmes like the IFAD-supported LMDP 2, Kyrgyz farmers are now using remote sensing technology to better manage their pastures. Degraded areas are cordoned off until they have had time to recover. Slowly, steadily, farmers are bringing diverse grasslands back to life.

Small-scale farmers’ critical work to protect biodiversity goes well beyond the confines of their own farms.

In Peru, farmers are restoring degraded wetlands, replanting native seeds and conserving rivers in return for ecosystem service payments. Upstream communities from Kenya to Nepal are doing the same, guarding natural resources for their distant neighbours and for the planet’s future.

Indigenous rural communities can play a particularly important role in guarding biodiversity. In Brazil, indigenous women act as seed guardians, creating stores of native seeds, while in Mexico, young Indigenous People tend native stingless bees.
 

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There are many other ways in which sustainable food systems can promote biodiversity rather than harm it. For example, food loss reduction not only makes more food available for people to eat, but also reduces the pressure to make up the shortfall by exploiting more land and water.

That’s why making our food systems sustainable isn’t just the smart thing to do for us as a species. It’s the right thing to do for the whole planet.