Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture and Ecosystem Services: Thematic Study for the State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture

By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

This study provides an overview of the roles that the biodiversity found in and around food and agricultural production systems play in the supply of ecosystem services ranging from provisioning services, such as the supply of food, fuel and fibre, to cultural services, such as recreation and aesthetic enjoyment, and regulating services, such as pollination, carbon sequestration, pest control and nutrient cycling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Release date: Sep 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9789251332078

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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FAO. 2020. Biodiversity for food and agriculture and ecosystem services – Thematic Study for The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb0649en

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Executive summary

1. Introduction

1.1 Key concepts

1.2 Links between biodiversity and the supply of ecosystem services

1.3 Scope and objectives of the study

2. Provisioning services

2.1 Food

2.1.1 Terrestrial domesticated animals

2.1.2 Terrestrial crop plants

2.1.3 Aquatic species

2.1.4 Wild foods

2.2 Raw materials

2.2.1 Terrestrial domesticated animals

2.2.2 Terrestrial crop plants

2.2.3 Forests and trees outside forests

2.2.4 Aquatic species

2.3 Freshwater

2.4 Medicinal and other biochemical resources

2.5 Ornamental resources

3. Regulating, supporting and habitat services

3.1 Air-quality and climate regulation

3.1.1 Air-quality regulation

3.1.2 Climate regulation

3.2 Natural-hazard regulation

3.3 Soil formation and protection and nutrient cycling

3.3.1 Erosion prevention

3.3.2 Maintenance of soil quality

3.3.3 Nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems and the wider environment

3.4 Pollination

3.5 Pest and disease regulation

3.6 Water purification and waste-water treatment

3.7 Habitat provisioning

4. Cultural and amenity services

5. Conclusions

References

Tables

Table 1. World food production from animal aquaculture in 2016, by taxonomic group

Acknowledgements

The study was prepared by Dafydd Pilling, with contributions from Kim-Anh Tempelman and Julie Bélanger, in FAO’s Secretariat of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Thanks are due to the many reviewers who provided comments on the study, including (all FAO unless otherwise indicated) Devin Bartley, Caterina Batello, Agnès Bernis-Fonteneau, Eric Blanchard (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, France), Paul Boettcher, Stefano Diulgheroff, Simon Funge-Smith, Bonnie Furman, Rodolphe Gozlan (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, France), Irene Hoffmann, Jarkko Koskela, Giulia Muir, Arshiya Noorani, Manuel Pomar Cloquell, Marcela Portocarrero-Aya, Mariam Rahmanian, Suzanne Redfern, Kristina Rodina, Beate Scherf, Vladimir Shlevkov-Pronskiy, Pablo Tittonell (Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Argentina), Miriam Widmer and Liesel Wiese.

Executive summary

This study provides a short overview of the contributions that biodiversity for food and agriculture (BFA) makes to the delivery of ecosystem services. It is intended to complement material provided in the country reports submitted as inputs to the report on The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture (SoW-BFA). BFA is a subcategory of biodiversity taken for the purposes of the SoW-BFA (and in this thematic study) to correspond to the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels that sustain the ecosystem structures, functions and processes in and around production systems, and that provide food and non-food agricultural products. The study considers a range of ecosystem services across the provisioning, regulating, supporting, habitat and cultural categories.

The examples presented in the various sections of the document illustrate the wide range of ecosystem services provided by BFA. They also show that the benefits that a given food and agricultural production unit (i.e. farm, fish farm, forest stand, fishery or livestock holding) gains from biodiversity generally come both from within and from outside the production unit. These services are supplied, and made more resilient, by a diverse range of interacting components of biodiversity, often including those that are used in or associated with other production units (including those in other sectors of food and agriculture) and those found on land or in waters not used for food and agriculture. It follows, similarly, that flows of benefits to one production unit can be disrupted by events, including the effects of human management or mismanagement, in others and in the wider landscape or seascape. These interactions point to the need for a more integrated management of production units and their surroundings, at least at landscape (or seascape) scale. The examples also show that the biodiversity present in and around food and agricultural production systems often provides ecosystem services whose benefits are felt far beyond the food and agriculture sector (and in some cases far away in geographical terms). While there are potential win–win scenarios in the management of BFA for ecosystem services, there will inevitably be cases where there are trade-offs in terms of who benefits or loses out. Efforts need to be made to develop equitable ways of addressing such issues, as well as to facilitate cooperation in the implementation of mutually beneficial actions.

Assessing the significance of diversity per se to the capacity of BFA to supply ecosystem services is often difficult. However, experimental evidence and theoretical considerations suggest that biological communities that are more diverse at species or within-species level will often be more effective or more