New guidelines for use of agricultural biodiversity in climate change adaptation planning

The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Integration of Genetic Diversity into National Climate Change Adaptation Planning have recently been endorsed by the UN FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The guidelines will assist countries to develop steps and activities that can ensure effective adaptation to climate change, and will help raise awareness of the important contributions that genetic diversity makes to climate-resilient agricultural systems.

Bioversity International supported the development of the guidelines by analyzing the extent to which agricultural biodiversity has  been included in the 50 National Adaptation Programmes of Action that have been developed to  date, and in the follow-up implementation projects that have been supported by international agencies.

The results of the study, carried out by Bioversity International scientists Michael Halewood, Ana Bedmar Villanueva and Isabel López Noriega, are set out in a new CCAFS discussion paper, entitled ‘Agricultural biodiversity in climate change adaptation planning: An analysis of the National Adaptation Programmes of Action’.

This study was presented at a side event organized by Bioversity International during the 15th Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, held in Rome, January 2015.  View the presentation - Agricultural biodiversity in climate change adaptation planning: An analysis of the National Adaptation Programmes of Action.

Read the full blog post on the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change and Food Security blog by Michael Halewood and Isabel Lopez Noriega.

This work is carried out through the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)

Photo: Chili diversity. Credit: Bioversity International/C. Zanzanaini