Biodiversity and the ecosystem approach in agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Contributors: FAO Inter-Departmental Working Group on Biological Diversity for Food and Agriculture.; Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Publisher: FAO
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Rome; [Great Britain]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 312
Subjects: Ecosystem management -- Congresses.; Sustainable agriculture -- Congresses.; Sustainable fisheries -- Congresses.; Sustainable forestry -- Congresses.; Biological diversity -- Congresses.
Genres: Congresses.
Description: There are over 500 million farm management units in the world, overwhelmingly found in developing countries. FAO's ongoing field work in over 100,000 rural communities has found that all those farm managers can understand their farms, fields, forest, rangelands and fisheries as ecosystems. Farmers, even in the poorest and most food-insecure regions of the world, manage genes by their decision on crop varieties, manage species by their decisions on farm animals and manage ecosystems by their decision on soil pollination.

Farmers, fisherfolk, and forest dwellers not only understand and can apply ecosystem approaches in their decision-making, but also understand the potential impact of large-scale environmental threats to their livelihoods. FAO's biodiversity programmes apply ecosystem approaches to stimulate community level education and experiential learning by rural people. The same approaches educate national policy makers wishing to fulfill commitments made to environmental treaties while still meeting agricultural production demands.
Notes: Based on a satellite event held during the ninth regular session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Rome, 12-13 October, 2002.

Includes bibliographical references.