Farmers' Seed Network at COP16

Background and objectives

Indigenous people and Local Communties（IPLCs）with majority of small farmers worldwide have created biodiversity-rich cultural landscapes and continue to conserve most of the world’s biodiversity, which is declining less rapidly on their lands (IPBES, 2019). This preservation is supported by their traditional knowledge, holistic bio-cultures that promote harmony with nature. Meanwhile, the interconnected crises of biodiversity loss, climate vulnerability, and food insecurity exacerbate each other. Bio-cultural diversity and community-based farmer seed systems are vital for addressing these interlinked issues, and transforming to biodiversity-rich, climate-resilient, and healthy food systems. Small farmers produce a third of the world's food and serve as stewards of diverse plants, animals, and forests (FAO 2021, FSN 2022, Swiderska et al. 2022). However, these IPLCs and small farmers are often overlooked and disconnected from mainstream policies and efforts. Our co-exploration at grassroot level illustrated that IPLCs, and their Bio-cultural territories are essential for conserving biodiverse food-producing habitats and empowering local communities to tackle these interconnected crises and achieve multiple SDG goals.

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The side event will present our shared concepts of Bio-cultural territories and farmer seed systems, showcasing potential OECMs and various pilot cases in China and other countries, aiming to contribute to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The event has the following specific objectives:​​

1. Showcase successful initiatives led by IPLCs to establish and enhance Biocultural Territories and farmer seed systems, addressing interlinked issues of biodiversity, food, and livelihoods in the context of climate change across Southwest China, the Himalaya-Hindu Kush, the Andes, and dryland ecosystems in Africa.
    

2. Demonstrate the potential OECM roles of community-based crop conservation supported by farmer seed systems, and other possible community-based mechanisms like Biocultural Heritage Territory (BCHT), the Territories and Areas conserved by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (ICCA), Man and the Biosphere (MAB) etc.
    

3. Explore the threats to IPLCs with small holding farmers, producers and Bio-cultural territories, calls for action, including the Declaration of the INMIP for COP16 and COP29.
    

4. Further enhance and build a diversified multiple stakeholder network of domestic and cross-border platforms that includes UN agency, governments and scientific research institutions, social organizations, and communities for promoting, scaling out and up good practices and knowledge, and exploring cooperation for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Targets and SDGs. ​

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