Biodiversity: Key to Human Health and Food Security

Our health depends on the food we eat, not just the amount but the variety of food which ensures balanced nutrition. As the global community observes the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22, with the theme “Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health”, we are reminded that the continuing supply of food relies on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Biodiversity is the variety of life that encompasses all species that are essential to sustain all life on earth. It includes the full-range of ecosystems, their component species, and the genetic variety of those species produced by nature or shaped by men.

People depend on meat, fish, poultry, and fruits for nutrition. With the hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species, biodiversity is key to feeding the world. Clearly, the value of biodiversity is most clear in the area of food security. Biodiversity provides the plant, animal, and microbial genetic resources for food production and agricultural productivity. It provides essential ecosystem functions such as fertilising the soil, recycling nutrients, regulating pests and disease, controlling erosion, and pollinating many of our crops and trees.

Agricultural Biodiversity

The United Nations (UN) Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) says that agricultural biodiversity, or agrobiodiversity, covers three areas – the diversity in genes, species, and ecosystems.

The diversity in genes within our plants and animals ensures that they continue to survive. The conservation and sustainable use of animal breeds and the relatives of domesticated crops are considered a genetic insurance policy for adapting to changing environmental conditions, such as climate change, and increasing consumer demands.

The diversity among species ensures that the variety of food we eat meets our nutritional needs. Good and balanced nutrition come from eating a variety of food species. The CBD explained it is essential for every human to have adequate access, availability, and stability of food and that the foods they eat meet their nutritional needs. In this way, diverse diets can contribute to the fight against problems of malnutrition and obesity in both developing and developed countries.

The diversity in ecosystems, which provides goods and services from nature, ensures health and survival of our food species. According to the CBD, the health and wellbeing of humans and other species across the planet depends on a variety of ecosystem goods and services. Agriculture is supported by a variety of ecosystem services and is itself a service. These include provisioning services such as food, fiber, fuel, biochemical, genetic resources and fresh water; regulating services such as flood, pest control, pollination, seed dispersal, erosion regulation, water purification, and climate and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual and religious values, knowledge systems, education and inspiration, and recreational and aesthetic values; and supporting services such as primary production, nutrient cycling, provision of habitat, production of atmospheric oxygen and water cycling.

Agricultural outputs increase but under threat

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that agricultural output has increased over 160 per cent since the 1960s, while the world’s population has more than doubled. However, the FAO warned that there are tradeoffs in increasing food production, primarily the degradation of ecosystems due to unsustainable agricultural practices such as monocropping, and excessive use of pesticide and fertiliser, among others.

The FAO further reported that over the millennia, humans have relied on more than 10,000 different plant species for food. Yet today, we barely have 150 species under cultivation. Some 75 per cent of the food crop varieties humans once grew have disappeared from the fields over the past 100 years. Around 20 per cent of domestic animal breeds are at risk of extinction, with an average of one breed lost each month. Over 70 per cent of the world’s fish species are either fully exploited or depleted.

According to the Secretariat of the CBD, locally-varied food production systems are under threat, including related indigenous, traditional and local knowledge. With this decline, agrobiodiversity is disappearing, including essential knowledge of traditional medicine and local foods. The loss of diverse diets is directly linked to diseases and health risk factors such as diabetes, obesity and malnutrition, and has a direct impact on the availability of traditional medicines.

Today, our diet as a whole has less variety. Clearly, we may have a greater quantity of food but we are losing food diversity which is key to balanced nutrition.

ASEAN efforts to sustain agrobiodiversity

According to Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, the 10 ASEAN Member States – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam – with support from the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, are working at the national and regional levels to ensure that agrobiodiversity is protected and maintained in the ASEAN region.

She said that in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for example, the government is supporting farmers who are maintaining diverse crop species and varieties. The farmers are aware that raising mixed crops increases the number of pollinators; decreases the infestation of pests, diseases and weeds; and increases the population of large earthworms that increase soil fertility.

She also reported that just recently, from May 16 to 19, the Philippines hosted in the island of Marinduque a conference on how bees can be protected from systemic pesticides. We are all aware that bees and other pollinators ensure the continuous reproduction of many important crops and plants for both humans and thousands of animal species.

Dr. Lim said that at the regional level, the ASEAN has a Strategic Plan of Action on Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry, which incorporates policies on agrobiodiversity. The ASEAN also has Regional Guidelines on Food Security and Nutrition Policy covering food security and nutrition, including agrobiodiversity.

The ASEAN region has several major agroecosystems that include crop-based production areas for rice, corn, vegetables, coconut, mango, oil palm, banana, and pineapple, to name a few. The ASEAN Biodiversity Outlook 2, a publication of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, reported that in 2014, the region produced 210 million tonnes of rice and 41 million tonnes of corn. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, seven ASEAN Member States – Indonesia, Viet Nam, Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, Cambodia, and Lao PDR – are in the top 20 producers of rice globally. ASEAN Member States are working together to sustain their contribution to the world’s food security.

To ensure that biodiversity is conserved while producing sustainable agri-products, the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity and selected sites in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam have piloted the project, Biodiversity-based Products (BBP) as an Economic Source for the Improvement of Livelihoods and Biodiversity Protection, implemented in partnership with Germany. Using a value chain promotion approach, the project promotes the use of biodiversity-based products for livelihood and biodiversity conservation.

Dr. Lim said that as parties to the CBD, the ASEAN Member States are committed to the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity and ecosystem services. They support the CBD initiatives on pollinators, soil biodiversity, and food and nutrition, as well as the ecosystem conservation approach for the integrated management of land, water and living resources, a strategy that promotes sustainable agricultural systems.

“As we join the global community in celebrating the International Day for Biological Diversity, let us take the opportunity to promote sustainable agricultural systems to conserve our biodiversity and ensure that we will be able to feed the world, maintain agricultural livelihoods, and enhance human health, thus, ensuring wellness and survival this century and beyond,” Dr. Lim emphasised. (RAI/ACB)