TCF Panel on Linking Agriculture and Conservation

Via www.christensenfund.org

Natural Justice partner and funder, The Christensen Fund (TCF), organised a panel discussion at the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) World Conservation Congress (WCC) entitled “from competition to collaboration between agriculture and conservation: moving toward convergence between agro-ecology and conservation biology.” The session included representatives from organisations working on issues such as biodiversity conservation, agriculture and Indigenous people. 

TCF described the session as coming in a “new phase of reflection and innovation around an agro-ecosystem approach as farmers, scientists and policy makers explore how to work with nature to reduce fossil energy subsidies, tighten nutrient cycles, better manage water use, contain the use of biocides, and take advantage of more complex and diverse systems to deliver more resilient and sustainable flows of food and fiber.” 

According to a report by the Earth Journalism Network, participants agreed on the need "to mainstream the idea that conservation of biodiversity need not only exist in places like national parks – which total less than 13 percent of the earth’s land area – but on the farms that cover much of the rest of the world.”  

Read the article by the Earth Journalism Network here. Find out more about The Christensen Fund here.