1575. The role of agrifood systems in achieving biodiversity targets: Insights from COP17 and FAO analysis

The seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) is being held in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October. It marks the first global review of collective progress towards the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), adopted in 2022, and a critical opportunity to identify implementation gaps and accelerate action towards its 2030 targets.

Biodiversity underpins agrifood systems through healthy soils, water, pollinators, genetic resources, forests and aquatic ecosystems. At the same time, land-use change, overexploitation, pollution and unsustainable production and consumption can drive biodiversity loss. Transforming agrifood systems is therefore central to reconciling food security with the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Ahead of COP17, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) analysed how agrifood systems are integrated into revised or updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) from 78 countries. NBSAPs are the principal policy instruments through which countries translate the KMGBF into national targets and actions.

FAO found that every NBSAP analysed contained agrifood-related targets and actions. Agrifood actions support 63 percent of national biodiversity targets, while 36 percent of roughly 12,000 planned actions relate to agrifood systems. These actions can contribute not only to KMGBF Target 10 on sustainable agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry, but to all 23 targets.

Coverage nevertheless remains uneven. Forestry and fisheries feature in 97 and 95 percent of the NBSAPs respectively, whereas aquaculture, some crop and livestock actions, agroecology, and food loss and waste receive less attention. Gaps also remain in finance, equitable access to resources, rights-based approaches and monitoring: fewer than half of the NBSAPs analysed contain measurable and effective indicators at the action level.

Agrifood systems are both affected by biodiversity loss and a major arena for reversing it. Turning commitments into results will require coherent policies, adequate finance and measurable indicators, as well as collaboration among producers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, researchers, governments and the private sector. Advancing sustainable and resilient food production together with biodiversity conservation is indispensable to achieving the 2030 goals.

References
•    Convention on Biological Diversity (2026). Spotlight on Yerevan: Announcements from the 2026 UN Biodiversity Conference. https://www.cbd.int/article/2026-10-18-06-36-57
•    Convention on Biological Diversity (2026). Global review of collective progress in the implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. https://www.cbd.int/globalreview
•    FAO (2026). Agrifood systems in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans – Global analysis. https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/ce1999en
•    FAO (2026). FAO at COP17: Accelerating biodiversity action through agrifood systems. https://www.fao.org/biodiversity/news/detail/fao-at-cop17--accelerating…

Contributor: Miyuki IIYAMA, Strategic Coordination Office