To provide a comprehensive analysis of status and trends of the world's agricultural biodiversity and of their underlying values (including a focus on the goods and services agricultural biodiversity provides), as well of local knowledge of its management.
Processes for country-driven assessments are in place, or under development, for the crop and farm-animal genetic resources components. The assessments draw upon, and contribute to, comprehensive data and information systems. There is also much information about resources that provide the basis for agriculture (soil, water), and about land cover and use, climatic and agro-ecological zones. However, further assessments may be needed, for example, for microbial genetic resources, for the ecosystem services provided by agricultural biodiversity such as nutrient cycling, pest and disease regulation and pollination, and for social and economic aspects related to agricultural biodiversity. Assessments may also be needed for the interactions between agricultural practices, sustainable agriculture and the conservation and sustainable use of the components of biodiversity.
Understanding of the underlying causes of the loss of agricultural biodiversity is limited, as is understanding of the consequences of such loss for the functioning of agricultural ecosystems. Moreover, the assessments of the various components are conducted separately; there is no integrated assessment of agricultural biodiversity as a whole. There is also lack of widely accepted indicators of agricultural biodiversity. The further development and application of such indicators, as well as assessment methodologies, are necessary to allow an analysis of the status and trends of agricultural biodiversity and its various components and to facilitate the identification of biodiversity-friendly agricultural practices.
Existing classification systems for ecosystems and farming systems include; eco-region, agro-ecological zones, landscapes, land evaluation systems, production systems/environments, farming systems and farm typologies, and take into account physical resources (air, climate, land, water, vegetation types), human resource attributes (population intensity, land-use pressures, settlement patterns), and degree of market integration.
Methods and techniques for assessing and monitoring the status and trends of agricultural biodiversity and other components of biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems, include: (a) Criteria and guidelines for developing indicators to facilitate monitoring and assessment of the status and trends of biodiversity in different production systems and environments, and the impacts of various practices on biological diversity; (b) An agreed terminology and classification for agro-ecosystems and production systems to facilitate the comparison and synthesis of various assessments and monitoring of different components of biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems, at all levels and scales, between countries, and regional and international partner organizations; (c) Data and information exchange on agricultural biodiversity (including available information on ex situ collections) in particular through the clearing-house mechanism under the Convention on Biological Diversity, building on existing networks, databases, and information systems; (d) Methodology for analysis of the trends of agricultural biodiversity and its underlying causes of decline, including socio-economic causes.