贫穷国家可能是农业生物多样性的未来“监护人”

发展中国家比富裕国家更好地承诺保护重要农业species in the future, but do less well in safeguarding existingbiodiversity。

这些是农业生物多样性指数户田拓夫启动y, which assessed ten pilot countries on how well they care for animals and plants of importance to farming. Agrobiodiversity refers to both domesticated and wild species which contribute to agriculture and food production.

With global hunger rising and at least a third of the world’s population suffering from poor nutrition, diversity in agriculture is essential to improvefood security, according to Bioversity International which compiled the index. It says the tool will help decision-makers ingovernment行业确保食品系统更多可持续的。

“The best in terms of status are the lowest in terms of progress. If rich countries don’t improve, they will lose the status they currently hold,”

Juan Lucas Restrepo, director general, Bioversity International

“Rising global food demand and limited arable land are pushing us to expand agricultural frontiers and increase production. This often happens without regard to the environment, causing biodiversity loss, and land and water degradation,” the report states.

Researchers from the organisation looked at existing species, their use and protection, as well as plans to nurture these species in the future.

研究的十个国家是澳大利亚，中国，埃塞俄比亚，印度，意大利，肯尼亚，尼日利亚，秘鲁，南非和美国。其中，秘鲁是保护现有农业生物多样性的第二好的，意大利排名第一和澳大利亚第三。秘鲁在进度评分方面也表现出色，该进度得分衡量了未来的保护承诺。

Juan Lucas Restrepo, director general of Bioversity International, said that Peru was “an amazing case”, due to the country’s commitments to working with local communities, promoting sustainable farming and preserving a variety of local crops, such as cocoa, maize, quinoa and oca.

“They understand that these crops are not only more nutritious, but they also bring tourists and benefit the Peruvian economy,” said Restrepo.

总的来说，发展中国家在当前的农业多样性地位指数方面的表现不佳，埃塞俄比亚，南非和印度排名最后。但是，在衡量未来行动和承诺的进度指数上，印度领导了该领域，其次是肯尼亚和南非。

Restrepo说，这些趋势可能会使发展中国家成为未来的农业生物多样性的“监护人”，并补充说：“就状态而言，最好的是最低的。如果富裕国家没有改善，他们将失去目前持有的地位。”

According to Restrepo, a growing focus on a few staple crops risks the loss of species variety in farming, making agriculture less adaptable and more vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks.

研究人员发现，尽管目前正在种植6,000种植物，但其中只有不到200种为食物链做出了重大贡献。其中只有9个，包括小麦和大米，占全球作物产量的66％。

The picture looks similar for livestock. Around 7,700 different species of animal are being reared on farms around the world, but of these, more than a quarter face extinction as farmers switch to mass-market produce.

Lukas Egli, a researcher of ecological systems at Germany’s Helmholtz Association, says that better protection of agrobiodiversity will require a “fundamental transformation” of the food system, with less focus on intensified farming and more support for small-scale farmers to ensure they can compete.

“In regions where large-scale industrial agriculture is the norm, policies need to be adapted to give small farmers access to land and support structures to make them economically viable,” he toldscidev.net。

These recommendations, however, go counter to projected trends in agriculture. Increasingly, food is produced by large companies that focus on a few highly popular and versatile crops, such as wheat and corn, to feed an ever-growing global population cheaply.

With climate change fuelling a rise in food prices and the global population expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, Bioversity International says it plans to issue a second index examining the performance of companies in relation to agrobiodiversity, to promote better practices in the private sector.