This will be the first time that ministers of agriculture and ministers of environment will be invited jointly to discuss issues of land and agriculture. Owing to the theme and its former role as a task manager for the relevant chapters in Agenda 21, FAO, with help from the Government of the Netherlands, is taking a lead in preparing for CSD-8. Firstly, the COP requests FAO and the CBD Secretariat to conduct the assessment of ongoing activities and instruments at international and national levels based on contributions, including the exchange of case studies, by governments and international and regional organizations. Secondly, the COP outlines the actions that Parties are encouraged to conduct through the development of national strategies, programmes and plans, with the support of international and regional bodies. It is the result of the careful selection and inventive developments of farmers, herders and fishers over millennia.
Agricultural biodiversity is a vital sub-set of biodiversity.
It is a creation of humankind whose food and livelihood security depend on the sustained management of those diverse biological resources that are important for food and agriculture. Agricultural biodiversity refers to the variety and variability of animals, plants, and micro-organisms on earth that are important to food and agriculture which result from the interaction between the environment, genetic resources and the management systems and practices used by people. It takes into account not only genetic species and agro-ecosystem diversity and the different ways land and water resources are used for production, but also cultural diversity, which influences human interactions at all levels. It has spatial, temporal and scale dimensions. Most ecosystems have been to some extent modified or cultivated by human activity for the production of food and income and for livelihood security.