Promoting ongoing and planned activities for the conservation, on farm, in situ, and ex situ, in particular, in the countries of origin, of the variability of genetic resources for food and agriculture, including their wild relatives.
Agricultural biodiversity is a broad term that includes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, and all components of biological diversity that constitute the agro-ecosystem: the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms, at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels, which are necessary to sustain key functions of the agro-ecosystem, its structure and processes, in accordance with annex I of decision III/11 of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The distinctive features of agricultural biodiversity include the following: (a) Agricultural biodiversity is essential to satisfy basic human needs for food and livelihood security; (b) Agricultural biodiversity is managed by farmers; many components of agricultural biodiversity depend on this human influence; indigenous knowledge and culture are integral parts of the management of agricultural biodiversity; (c) There is a great interdependence between countries for the genetic resources for food and agriculture; (d) For crops and domestic animals, diversity within species is at least as important as diversity between species and has been greatly expanded through agriculture; (e) Because of the degree of human management of agricultural biodiversity, its conservation in production systems is inherently linked to sustainable use; (f) Nonetheless, much biological diversity is now conserved ex situ in gene banks or breeders' materials; (g) The interaction between the environment, genetic resources and management practices that occurs in situ within agro-ecosystems often contributes to maintaining a dynamic portfolio of agricultural biodiversity.