On 13 June, while attending the 2019 EAT Stockholm Forum, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) joined an on-stage Live Panel Discussion themed on “The Race to Save Each Other: Biodiversity, Humans & Food”. The honorable panelists also included: Cristiana Pasca-Palmer, the Executive Secretary of the UN CBD, Juan Lucas Restrepo, the Director General of Biodiversity International, Marie Haga, the Executive Director of Global Crop Diversity Trust.

It is worth mentioning that before the panel started and while waiting in the backstage, Dr. Zhou made a suggestion to Dr. Pasca-Palmer: Biodiversity friendly, first of all, it means in the aspect from the events, conferences, meetings and transportations held in China and the world. The CBD COP15 meeting to be held in Kunming, China next year, should implement this concept and achieve the integration of words and deeds, and implement lifestyles such as food and accommodation that are friendly to biodiversity. Dr. Pasca-Palmer agreed very much on this point. CBCGDF has sent a letter to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to apply for the participation in the preparatory work for accommodation, transportation and catering in CBD COP15 held in Kunming. CBCGDF will contribute to the event based on the accumulated experience.

Also presented during the exchange was an official of the UNEP, who also endorsed Dr. Zhou's proposal. The official noted that at international conferences such as the Climate Summit in Paris, there was no real sustainable food supply in terms of catering and that it had not been "consistent with words and deeds" and had been criticized. He also said he looked forward to seeing China as the host of the CBD COP15, in the implementation of healthy, sustainable food and beverage concepts and other concepts of the great country's example. In the letter to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, CBCGDF referred to the recommendation that the event consider combining catering, transportation and other preparations with ecological, environmental, climatic, biodiversity and other factors.

Though we often speak of our race to protect biodiversity, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and others flag that it may be biodiversity’s race to save humanity. The recently released IPBES reporton Nature’s contributions to people minces no words: we are faced with unprecedented loss of biodiversity both in nature and in food.

Biodiversity loss now commands the same level of attention as climate change, and while protecting nature is our best bet at mitigating climate change, increasing diversity in our plates is our best bet for improving dietary health.

More details about this panel and its live stream, please refer to:

https://www.bioversityinternational.org/eat-forum/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctdsyZ8jj6Q

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

By / Niu Jingmei