SDG 2.5: Safeguarding biodiversity
This knowledge page creates an open platform for those working to safeguard biodiversity in line with the SDG2 Hub's 2020 policy priority for SDG2.5.
Priority: Drive action and awareness on biodiversity loss through Food Forever campaign
Audience: Global audience of consumers, chefs, farmers, policy-makers
Potential for impact: Drive consumers towards more diverse eating habits; showcase success stories and new diverse food to bring into mainstream
Role of Hub: Drive engagement in Chefs' Network to have them support and champion alternate ingredients; support coordination and amplify need for investment to protect biodiversity by 2020.
This page will be updated regularly with further updates, news, resources and case studies.
Updates & moments
- 2020 UN Biodiversity Summit – 15 - 28 Oct 2020
- Nature Summit - 20 Sept 2020
- UN Food Systems Summit 2021 – TBC
News
- Interview with Fabrice DeClerck, Science Director at EAT
- Food for thought: When sustainable chefs meet Kew scientists
Resources
- EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems
- FAO's The State of the World's Biodiversity for Food & Agriculture
- Future 50 Foods
Case studies
ICARDA Genebank - Morocco & Lebanon
In Morocco and Lebanon, The International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) stores over 1,380 cultivated species of wild crop relatives for conservation as well as for the development of resilient seed varieties that can grow in difficult conditions. Scientists and researchers have discovered that wild crop relatives such as faba bean, lentil, barley, chickpea, lathyrus and forages have different strands of genetic resistance. If isolated, these traits can be used in the pre-breeding of other staple crops such as wheat, improving both the variety of seeds available and their overall productivity.
Not only safeguarding genetic diversity, these gene banks contribute to sustainable food systems with a diversity of climate-smart crops.
Safeguarding biodiversity in the SDGs
SDG2.5: By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.