Tue, Oct 16, 2012 -
Damage to Ecological Basis Can Be Halted
Through Sustainable Measures in Context
of Green Economy
UNEP Chief Scientist Alcamo presents landmark
food security report to H.E. President Kibaki
of Kenya on World Food Day, witnessed by
Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Kosgey and
Permanent Secretary Dr. Kiome. Photo credit:
Neema Grace Mutemi
Nairobi/Hyderabad, 16
October 2012 - The aim of achieving food
security across the globe will become increasingly
elusive unless countries factor the planet's
nature-based services into agricultural
and related planning, a report released
today from the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP) says.
Safeguarding the underlying
ecological foundations that support food
production, including biodiversity will
be central if the world is to feed seven
billion inhabitants, climbing to over nine
billion by 2050 argues the study Avoiding
Future Famines: Strengthening the Ecological
Basis of Food Security through Sustainable
Food System.
Further Resources
Download Full ReportUNEP and Ecosystem ManagementTowards
a Green Economy. Pathways to sustainable
and poverty eradicationThe Economics of
Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)Inefficiencies
along the food delivery chain further complicate
the challenge, and the report highlights
that an estimated one-third of food produced
for human consumption is lost or wasted,
amounting to 1.3 billion tonnes per year.
The debate on food security
so far has largely revolved around availability,
access, utilization and stability as the
four pillars of food security, barely touching
on the resource base and ecosystem services
that prop up the whole food system.
The report aims to increase
the focus on these crucial aspects, which
are being undermined by overfishing, unsustainable
water use, environmentally degrading agricultural
practices and other human activities. It
also frames the debate in the context of
the green economy, calling for food production
and consumption practices that ensure productivity
without undermining ecosystem services.
“The environment has
been more of an afterthought in the debate
about food security,” said UNEP Chief Scientist
Joseph Alcamo. “This is the first time that
the scientific community has given us a
complete picture of how the ecological basis
of the food system is not only shaky but
being really undermined.”
While pointing out the
current challenges, the report also offers
a clear way forward to shore up the ecological
foundations and improve food security. It
issues recommendations on the redesign of
sustainable agriculture systems, dietary
changes and storage systems and new food
standards to reduce waste.
“The era of seemingly
ever-lasting production based upon maximizing
inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides,
mining supplies of freshwater and fertile
arable land and advancements linked to mechanization
are hitting their limits, if indeed they
have not already hit them,” said UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director Achim
Steiner. “The world needs a green revolution
but with a capital G: one that better understands
how food is actually grown and produced
in terms of the nature-based inputs provided
by forests, freshwaters and biodiversity.”
The report, produced
in collaboration with other international
organizations including the International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD),
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
the World Bank, the World Food Programme
(WFP) and the World Resources Institute
(WRI), took a holistic approach to analyzing
the food system. Twelve scientists and experts
authored the report, covering many different
areas of expertise including food consumption
patterns, agricultural production, marine
fisheries and inland fisheries.
They found that while
agriculture provides 90 per cent of the
world's total caloric intake, and world
fisheries provide the other 10 per cent,
these life-supporting industries face many
threats, all of which are exacerbated by
underlying driving forces such as population
growth, income growth and changing lifestyles/diets
linked to urbanization.
The report identified
the following specific threats to these
systems:
Agriculture
Competition for water. Some experts believe
that future food demands need to be met
by additional irrigated land, but there
is already strong competition from rapidly
growing domestic and industrial water withdrawals.
Conventional agricultural
practices have a variety of ecosystem impacts,
such as a reduction of on-farm biodiversity
and attendant increase in pests and disease,
soil loss, eutrophication and contamination
of ground water.
Traditional agricultural
practices, if practiced inappropriately,
can lead to severe land degradation.
Climate change and its
impacts will compound the preceding threats
to agriculture by shifting crop-growing
zones and bringing an eventual decrease
in crop productivity.
Marine Fisheries
Overfishing is the foremost force in undermining
the ecological basis of fisheries. The FAO
estimated that as of 2008, 53 per cent of
global marine stocks are fully exploited,
15 per cent are either underexploited (3
per cent) or moderately exploited (12 per
cent), while 32 per cent are either overexploited
(28 per cent), depleted (3 per cent) or
are recovering from depletion (1 per cent).
Loss of coastal habitat
such as coral reefs and mangrove forests.
At least 35 per cent of mangrove forests
and 40 per cent of coral reefs have been
destroyed or degraded over the last decades.
Bottom trawling, dredging
and destructive fishing practices such as
the use of dynamite and cyanide, which lead
to habitat loss or modification.
Degradation of coastal
water quality. Nutrient runoff causes coastal
eutrophication, zones of severely reduced
dissolved oxygen and depleted aquatic life.
Over four hundred dead zones have been identified
in coastal areas.
Climate change will
lead to warmer water and a more acidified
ocean, with many impacts on marine fisheries.
The IPCC projects a global loss of 18 per
cent of the world's coral reefs in the next
three decades, shrinking a crucial fish
habitat.
Inland Fisheries
Infrastructure developments such as dam
construction in river catchments are destroying
or modifying inland fishery habitats. More
than 50 per cent of the world’s large rivers
have been fragmented by dams on their main
channel and 59 per cent on their tributaries.
Land-use change and
removal of vegetation cover leads to increased
runoff, erosion and sediment pollution of
water. Human activities have increased sediment
flow into rivers by about 20 per cent worldwide.
Agricultural expansion
disrupts connectivity between floodplains
and rivers - floodplains provide some of
the most productive habitat for inland fisheries.
Agricultural runoff
and domestic and industrial wastewater discharges
are degrading the quality of many inland
waters. Wastewater loadings to inland waters
in Africa may increase by a factor of four
to eight between the 11000s and 2050.
Biodiversity
The variety and variability of animals,
plants and micro-organisms at the genetic,
species and ecosystem levels are necessary
to sustain key functions of the ecosystem.
For example, a diverse range of soil organisms
interact with the roots of plants and trees
and ensures nutrient cycling.
Many food production
activities negatively impact on this supporting
biodiversity, such as:
Fertilizer run-off, which causes eutrophication,
poses a threat to the diverse life of lakes
and coastal areas.
Excessive tillage -
tilling to greater depths and more frequent
cultivations - has an increased negative
impact on all soil organisms, in particular
organisms living in surface areas, such
as earthworms.
Deforestation and pesticide
contamination of lands adjacent to farmland
degrade "off-farm biodiversity",
impacting pollinators and natural pest control
of crops.
Overfishing may result
in the removal of important components of
the ecosystem, such as algal-feeding fish
in coral reef systems, with a consequence
of altered biodiversity and ecological states
that may be impossible to restore.
Aquaculture activities
are also a source of pollution and biodiversity
concerns as they may lead to the introduction
of pathogens, strains and/or species that
can change marine habitats and diversity.
The destructive fishing
methods mentioned above can disrupt marine
ecosystems, and it may take hundreds of
years for vulnerable habitats such as cold
water corals and seamounts to recover from
such practices.
While the problems are
many and varied, the report issues a raft
of recommendations that can shore up the
ecological foundations and create the conditions
for sustainable food production.
“The solutions are to
be found along the whole food value chain
- from the farms that need to grow food
more sustainability, through the large companies
that need to ensure that their products
are from sustainable fisheries and farms,
up to the consumer who needs to think seriously
about switching to a sustainable diet and
reduce food wastage,” said Prof. Alcamo.
“Of course, we have to deal first and foremost
with all the socio-economic issues having
to do with food security - questions of
access and affordability of food, and so
on,” he added. “But ultimately we won't
have enough food to distribute unless we
find out a way to produce it sustainably
without destroying its ecological foundation.”
Recommendations
Among the key recommendations for ushering
in more sustainable agriculture and fisheries
are the following:
Build centralized storage and cooling facilities
for small-scale farmers to help get their
produce to market faster, thus avoiding
food loss.
Promote sustainable
diets so as to avoid unhealthy eating habits
and the associated health effects, and reduce
impact on natural resources. In particular,
lower consumption of meat and dairy products
in developed countries should be promoted.
Re-consider food quality
standards that lead to unnecessary wastage.
Design sustainable agriculture,
not only on individual farms, but scaling
up to the landscape and national level.
Examples include improving soil management,
making agricultural water use more efficient
and promoting integrated nutrient management.
Sustainable agriculture
can be scaled up by supporting farmers,
extending land tenure rights to farmers
to encourage stewardship and rewarding farmers
and farming communities for ecosystem stewardship.
Economic strategies
consistent with green economy thinking are
also fundamental to scaling up sustainable
agriculture, such as:
Eliminating subsidies
that contribute to overfishing (the global
fishery sector receives up to US$25-30 billion)
and habitat destruction, and redirecting
funds into investment for sustainable fishery
management and capacity building.
Providing incentives for sustainable fisheries
such as beneficial subsidies for conversion
of fishing gears to less-damaging alternatives.
Introducing fiscal measures such as taxation
and levies on harvest volume and increased
fines on illegal, unreported, unregulated
fishing.
Draw small shareholders
into the global food economy and make them
part of the system of sustainable practices
in agriculture and fisheries.
Where technically feasible,
maximum sustained yields" of marine
fisheries should be calculated and adhered
to with enforcement arrangements and economic
incentives. In poorer countries and for
small-scale marine fisheries, a "co-management"
approach can work in which fishers might
agree to fish size or species limitations,
seasonal closures of fisheries.
Establish networks of
Aquatic Protected Areas.
Protect marine fisheries
by reducing land-based pollution sources
that lead to "dead zones" in coastal
areas.
In summary, the scientists
pointed out that to neglect the ecological
aspects of food security would hamper efforts
in its other four pillars. While we can’t
avoid famine simply by making the food system
environmentally friendly, neither can we
go on producing food by wearing away its
ecological foundation. In the end we’ll
find - no foundation, no food, says UNEP
Chief Scientist.
