The 10th meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) has begun, with representatives from over 190 countries gathering in Nagoya, Japan. Some of the main issues that will be discussed at COP include access and benefit sharing, food security and biodiversity loss.
Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the CBD, recently warned about biodiversity loss in a statement he made at The International Seminar on the Role of Agrobiodiversity in addressing Hunger and Climate Change: The Road to Nagoya
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“Seventy-five percent of the food crop varieties we once grew have disappeared from our fields in the last 100 years. Twenty-one percent of the world’s 7,000 livestock breeds are classified as being at risk, while more than 60 breeds are reported to have become extinct during the first six years of this century alone…..”Of the 7,000 species of plants that have been domesticated over the history of agriculture, a mere 30 account for 90 percent of all the food that we eat every day,” <unquote>
To preserve and conserve biodiversity between now and 2020, the conference is debating whether to set aside terrestrial areas and a yet to be decided percentage of the world’s marine areas as sanctuaries. Another main issue that delegates will be concentrating upon is the new protocol on access to genetic resources for commercial use, especially when those resources lie on the lands of indigenous peoples.
Bioversity International is present at COP 10, representing the Consortium of CGIAR Centres.
A series of factsheets have been published that provides participants and visitors at COP 10 with background information on some of the key topics related to conservation and agriculture. The factsheets touch on the following topics:
* Agricultural Biodiversity
* Millennium Development Goals
* Crop Wild Relatives
* Neglected and Underutilized Species
* Nutrition
* Aquatic Genetic Resources
* Animal Genetic Resources
* Adapting to Climate Change
* Access and Benefit Sharing
* The Satoyama Initiative
* Guardians of Agricultural Biodiversity
They can be downloaded separately, or as a full set from Bioversity’s website.
The Agrobiodiversity Grapevine 