Roundtable: Biodiversity and Food Security

More land under protection and more food for the people: How can international and local knowledge be mobilized to reconcile two conflicting goals?

Our Roundtable’s discussion is set against the backdrop of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) agreement of putting 30 per cent of the planet and 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. Whilst this is a bold step towards significantly reducing the loss of biodiversity, it may require new answers to the question of how to ensure food security worldwide.

The Roundtable will also reflect on COP 15’s call for reconciling scientific and indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge and practices. The action point titled “Capacity-building and development and technical and scientific cooperation”, encourages academic institutions to support the global biodiversity framework “with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities”. The opportunities, challenges and contradictions of this statement will constitute the red thread of our discussion.

The Roundtable contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 2 (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture) and 15 (Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss).

Organizer

German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)

The event is sponsored by the German Research Foundation and its Collaborative Research Center (CRC) “Future Rural Africa. Future-making and social-ecological transformation.” as well as by the city of Cologne.