By Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD (Leading Environmental Law Scholar, Policy Advisor, Natural Resources Lawyer and Dispute Resolution Expert from Kenya), Winner of Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021, ADR Publisher of the Year 2021 and CIArb (Kenya) Lifetime Achievement Award 2021*
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1992, for example, recognized the link between biodiversity, agriculture, and nutrition, and has called for greater mainstreaming of agricultural biodiversity into policies and practices aimed at food and nutrition security, as well as increased coordination between the environment, agriculture, and nutrition sectors, as far back as 2006 CBD, COP 8 Decision VIII/23. The second and third objectives of the Convention on the sustainable use of biodiversity and its components, as well as the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits emerging from the use of genetic resources, for example, contain various pertinent clauses.
Articles 6 (b), 10 (a) (c), 14, 11, 7 (c), and 8(l) of the Convention further call for biodiversity to be mainstreamed. COP 26 side activities on November 3, 2021, for example, underlined that feeding humanity required a systemic transformation to build climate change resilience and safeguard soils, water, ecosystems, and farmers, which is fundamentally different from the “green revolution.” Innovative technologies and approaches being developed and applied around the world will be critical in making our food systems more sustainable. These technologies must generate cash and create jobs in order to be economically viable. They must include impoverished and vulnerable communities and lower hunger and malnutrition levels in order to be socially sustainable. They must help us protect water, soil, and air quality while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, food loss, and waste in order to be environmentally sustainable.
COP 10 Decision X/2, Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020
The COP 10 Decision X/2, Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-202029, with its Aichi Targets30 , were adopted by the United Nations where Parties and other Governments, with the support of intergovernmental and other organizations, as appropriate, were urged to implement the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 whose main mission is to: “take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life, and contributing to human well-being, and poverty eradication.
To ensure this, pressures on biodiversity are reduced, ecosystems are restored, biological resources are sustainably used and benefits arising out of utilization of genetic resources are shared in a fair and equitable manner; adequate financial resources are provided, capacities are enhanced, biodiversity issues and values mainstreamed, appropriate policies are effectively implemented, and decision-making is based on sound science and the precautionary approach.” The Plan was meant to provide an overarching framework on biodiversity, not only for the biodiversity-related conventions, but for the entire United Nations system and all other partners engaged in biodiversity management and policy development.
COP 8 Decision VIII/23, Agricultural biodiversity: Cross-cutting initiative on biodiversity for food and nutrition
The COP 8 Decision VIII/23 on Agricultural biodiversity, urged Parties and other Governments to integrate biodiversity, food and nutrition considerations into their national biodiversity strategies and action plans and other national plans and activities, including national plans of action for nutrition and strategies for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. As an Annexture, it provided for a Proposed Framework for A Cross-Cutting Initiative On Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition, whose overall aim was to promote and improve the sustainable use of biodiversity in programmes contributing to food security and human nutrition, as a contribution to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 1, Goal 7 and related goals and targets and, thereby, to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity, its conservation and sustainable use. In promoting integration of biodiversity, food and nutrition issues into research and policy instruments, Element 2 thereof called for mainstreaming of the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into agendas, programmes and policies related to nutrition, health, agriculture and hunger and poverty reduction.
A/RES/70/1 – Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, under Goal 2, aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture:- By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round; By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment; By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.
Further, Agenda 2030 provides for the Goal that by 2020, State Parties shall maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed; increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries.
Aichi Target 13
The Aichi Target 13 stipulates that by 2020, the genetic diversity of cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and of wild relatives, including other socio-economically as well as culturally valuable species, is maintained, and strategies have been developed and implemented for minimizing genetic erosion and safeguarding their genetic diversity.
*This article is an extract from the Article: Biodiversity Mainstreaming for Food and Nutrition Security in Kenya by Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD, Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021 (Nairobi Legal Awards), ADR Publisher of the Year 2021 and ADR Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 (CIArb Kenya). Dr. Kariuki Muigua is a foremost Environmental Law and Natural Resources Lawyer and Scholar, Sustainable Development Advocate and Conflict Management Expert in Kenya. Dr. Kariuki Muigua is a Senior Lecturer of Environmental Law and Dispute resolution at the University of Nairobi School of Law and The Center for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP). He has published numerous books and articles on Environmental Law, Environmental Justice Conflict Management, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Sustainable Development. Dr. Muigua is also a Chartered Arbitrator, an Accredited Mediator, the Africa Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Managing Partner of Kariuki Muigua & Co. Advocates. Dr. Muigua is recognized among the top 5 leading lawyers and dispute resolution experts in Kenya by the Chambers Global Guide 2022.
References
Muigua, K., “Biodiversity Mainstreaming for Food and Nutrition Security in Kenya,” (KMCO, 2021) Available at: http://kmco.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/ 2021/12/ Biodiversity-Mainstreaming-for-Food-and-Nutrition-Security-in-Kenya-Kariuki-Muigua-December-2021.pdf (accessed on 05/04/2022).