Wednesday 20 May 2015

UN launches study of bodiversity and farming (online)


Ecosystems and agricultural & food systems are typically evaluated in isolation from one another. However, ecosystems are the ecological home in which crop and livestock systems thrive and produce food for humans, and in turn agricultural practices, food production, distribution and consumption impose several unquantified externalities. A ‘TEEB for Agriculture & Food’ study, led by the UNEP TEEB Office, will bring together economists, business leaders, agriculturalists and experts in biodiversity to provide a comprehensive economic evaluation of the ‘eco-agri-food systems’ complex, and demonstrate that the economic environment in which farmers operate is distorted by a lack of awareness of dependency on natural capital. A “double-whammy” of economic invisibility of impacts from both ecosystems and agricultural/food systems is a root cause of increased fragility and lower resilience to shocks in both ecological and human systems.

No comments:

Post a Comment