While global negotiations on Biodiversity and Climate Change are delayed, those indigenous and local communities in China have not stopped working with nature to address crisis, climate change and all challenges and their continue efforts have been contributing to the resilience and sustainability of the world!
Supported by Farmers’ Seed Network (China), indigenous farmers have been working with nature to conserve agrobiodiversity and adapt to climate change everyday. Working closely with scientists and other stakeholders, based on their traditional knowledge, indigenous farmers and local people work collectively conserve and breed crop varieties that are better adapted to climate risks like drought and unprectable rainfall etc. These indigenous farmers were encouraged and supported to conserve and utilize their local food plants and biocultural heritage, such as food crop landraces, wild medicinal plants, and local livestock and aquarine species.
The indigenous peoples in the ecosystems of dryland, mountainous and costal are all facing the challenges of climate change, but in a different ways. But they revive traditional farming and explore sustainble fisheries by biodiversity-friendly awareness and techniques for better management of nature resources and climate change adaptation. As such, indigenous farmers’ livelihood security and policy changes have been promoted through value adding and marketing of local resources and traditional knowledge.
Before and during CBD COP15 and before UNFCCC COP 26, Farmers’ Seed Network (China) has been coorganized a series of policy dialogue and side events in Beijing, Xishuangbanna and Kunming to bridge indigenous communities, scientists and NGOs and the Pre-COP events were supported by researche institutions such as Bioversity International, UNEP-IEMP and Xishuangbanna Tropical Garden of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Pre-COP 15 events and during COP 15 side event have significantly streghtens the confidence of small farmers, mainly women, indigenous people and local communities and at same time their roles on biodiversity and climate change have been increasingly recognized by scientific communities and public.
As governments consider how to protect food security during COVID-19 and how to build more resilient seed and food systems in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, they must ensure that recovery policies and investments support nature-based and community-based integrated solutions by linking biodiversity conservation, nutrition improvement and climate change adaptation for the food system transformation and sustainable world!