Tools to create a biodiverse dinner plate | cgiar environment and biodiversity platform webinar series #2

It is important to utilize different tools to help us meet the nutrition and biodiversity needs of the planet and humans.  

The three Rio Conventions, sister conventions were created to address climate change, desertification and biodiversity loss: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Together they also produced a range of tools and services to help vulnerable countries and communities to achieve sustainable development. This includes assessing impacts, risks and vulnerability, planning and implementing adaptation actions, and monitoring and evaluation. Strategically implementing plans like this will help adaptation activities have multiple benefits such as combating desertification and preventing biodiversity loss. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is working on assessing these research gaps.  

Food provisioning is one of the ecosystem services and creating biodiverse food systems can play a crucial role in growing healthier food systems that nourish people and the planet. The Periodic Table of Foods framework is a specific case study to showcase a tool striving to meet these goals, increasing food biodiversity in what we eat and how it’s grown, soundly aligning with the Environmental Health &Biodiversity Platform goals. 

We have brought together global experts in different sectors of biodiversity work to share with us how we can use these different tools to support and work towards the Framework’s goals.   

David Obura, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Chair and member of the Earth Commission, will share his expertise on opportunities for aligning the three Rio conventions and enhancing IPBES & CGIAR collaboration through the IPBES’ assessments on necessary research priorities. He will unpack the ways CGIAR can partner with IPBES to meet these gaps.  

Gina Kennedy, Director of Research, Translation and Impact at the Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI) and Principal Scientist at the Alliance Biodiversity and CIAT, will zoom in to showcase one example of an ecosystem service striving to meet the IPBES goals: food systems. She will present her expertise on the period table of foods and its relevance to the GBF and how the periodic table of foods can inform the design of the CGIAR impact areas