Why (agro)biodiversity is the lifeblood of the nexus approach

By Natalia Estrada Carmona and Sarah Jones

Our planet is a complex web of life. Every element plays a crucial role in maintaining balance, and this delicate equilibrium, known as biodiversity, is the foundation of environmental health. Each species, wild or cultivated, contributes to ecosystem services that are vital to human survival - pollination, nutritious food, clean air and water, fertile soil, and climate regulation.

However, our natural world is under threat. Human activities - intensive agriculture, deforestation, pollution, and climate-changing emissions - are intensively disrupting ecosystems, leading to an unprecedented loss of wild and cultivated biodiversity. While a recent study supported by the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains calculated that agricultural and urban areas must incorporate at least 20-25% natural or semi-natural habitats in their fabric to sustain the benefits of biodiversity, two-thirds of such areas worldwide fall short of this critical threshold.

When wild and cultivated biodiversity decline, ecosystems falter, leading to a chain reaction: reduced agricultural productivity, increased natural disasters, poverty, inequalities, and the spread of diseases. Simply put, the health of our environment directly impacts our collective well-being. We humans face, therefore, the challenge of halting biodiversity loss and restoring the health of our ecosystems for our near future and future generations.

Why is systems thinking needed to maintain and restore biodiversity?

Agricultural systems detached from nature and biodiversity (in other words, conventional systems) have been identified as sources of many of the problems that motivate current global agendas. This is true of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, the Water Action Agenda, and Land Degradation Neutrality. However, agriculture can itself be managed to become a solution space for addressing human global challenges. This can be done by actively bringing back to farms and larger landscapes the wild and cultivated biodiversity needed to produce food, also called (agro)biodiversity.

The Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed by the 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, is setting the tone for how these countries will concretely engage in bending the curve of biodiversity loss. Although focused on all biodiversity, certain targets are directly related to agrobiodiversity. For example, Target 10 aims to substantially increase the application of biodiversity-friendly practices in sustainable production. In NEXUS Gains we see this as a long-due recognition of the nearly 40% of the planet's ice-free land that is under agricultural ecosystems. Agrifood systems that lack biodiversity and environmental objectives are incompatible with global agendas and commitments toward a world in harmony with nature.

One central, persistent challenge is sectoral thinking. We need more systems thinking if we are going to analyze interconnected ecological, social, and economic processes and identify the synergies and trade-offs of development and conservation interventions. One of our NEXUS Gains reviews has flagged a concerning focus on very few outcomes when researchers conduct trade-off analysis in agricultural systems. The most-used indicators among 119 scientific articles were profitability (57%), yield (44%), and water quantity (34%), while biodiversity and energy indicators appeared in less than a quarter of studies each, and less than 5% included human outcomes like empowerment and gender equity. In other words, when planning for agriculture profitability and yield is what matters, reaffirming the idea of an agriculture detached from nature.

This is unfortunate because on closer look, there are also win-win outcomes for (agro)biodiversity and food production, as we saw in observations from another 43 studies. In 23% of cases, farmland diversification led to a double win for biodiversity and crop yield. These were especially cases where multiple diversification practices were combined (such as intercropping and cover crops), where agrochemicals were avoided, and where soil biodiversity flourished. Agrobiodiverse landscapes host more biodiversity, and contrary to past perceptions, diversified farming systems are profitable - even more so than conventional ones. Maybe this shouldn't surprise us: as with any investment portfolio in changing times, who would invest in only one product?

Plural values and integrated efforts

The water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus approach offers a unique opportunity to fast-track a positive transformation by actively integrating stakeholders from all these sectors at the same table. Integrating visions, aims, and sometimes divergent goals lets us identify trade-offs and, more importantly, holistic, just, and lasting solutions anchored by coherent policies.

It is a hopeful sign to see that efforts on three continents purposefully integrating conservation, sustainable agriculture, governance, and livelihoods goals have resulted in stronger positive outcomes than sectoral projects. Empirical data from our team validate this. Four case studies from Brazil, two sectoral and two integrated, show that the integrated initiatives contributed more of what matters to people: they improved people's well-being, and also their connections with nature. In the end, we humans need, depend on, and are part of nature. This is why multiple values - beyond material and economic ones - are central to a just transformation. Our team has been working to identify methods and strategies to better account for and consider such plural valuesin development and conservation interventions.

Change starts with building capacity

In studying 357 landscape-focused initiativeswe have found that substantial, ongoing capacity building is a ubiquitous need. NEXUS Gains is actively contributing to that effort: for instance, placing integrative modeling systems like the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use and Energy (FABLE) tool in the hands of Blue Nile Basin stakeholders; and generating learning material and opportunities on gender equity and social inclusion in the nexus. We have also found that the more landscape approaches enable social justice by fostering empowerment, autonomy, equity, and health, the better they perform for everyone.

Our research and work give us hope, and indicate that it is not too late to save biodiversity and multiple ecosystems, including cultivated ones, today. Whole-systems thinking like the nexus approach will enhance our science, innovation, and outcomes for a just and prosperous society in thriving ecosystems.

Natalia Estrada Carmona is a Scientist - Landscape ecologist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; Sarah K. Jones is a Scientist at the Alliance; both scientists lead the Agrobiodiversity Index.

This work was carried out under the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, which is grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund contributors: www.cgiar.org/funders

Header image: Lukanga wetland, Zambia. Photo by Matthew McCartney/IWMI.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.