2nd UN FAO Agroecology Symposium Targets SDGs

The second UN FAO International Symposium on Agroecology  – Agroecology:  Scaling Up agroecology to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  – begins Tuesday 3rd April.

According to organisers: “This second symposium aim at moving agroecology from dialogue to activities at the regional and country level by providing an opportunity for sharing ideas and experiences, while discussing policies and actions that can support agroecology in achieving the SDGs and accompany the decade  of Family Farming.

The Symposium will take a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectorial and multi-disciplinary approach. About 400 participants are expected to attend, from policy-makers and governments, agroecology practitioners and civil society representatives, to members from academia and research, the private sector and representatives from the regional meetings.”

Running from 3rd to the 5th of this month, the event builds upon the 1st symposium from 2014 and subsequent meetings. The FAO have emphasised the following areas from their period of consultation since 2014, which, the organisation notes, has involved dialogue with 1350 people from 162 countries.

1. enhancing smallholder and family farmers’ adaptation and resilience  to the impacts of climate change;
2. improving nutrition including through more diversified diets;
3. protecting and enhancing agro-biodiversity in support of ecosystem services such as pollination and soil health;
4. improving livelihoods in rural areas;
5. achieving a transformative change in agricultural practices towards sustainable development. 

The event is earmarked for launching the Scaling Up Agroecology Initiative. (opens .pdf) The document responds to four key questions: “What is the potential of agroecology to contribute to the 2030 Agenda?” (Section 1); “What are the key challenges and opportunities to scale-up agroecology?” (Section 2); “Which core areas of work should the Scaling up Agroecology Initiative focus on?” (Section 3); and “What is the way forward for the Scaling up Agroecology Initiative?” (Section 4).

Resources for the 2nd Agroecology Symposium

Visit the homepage of the Symposium here

Follow the event live here

See the FAO’s Agroecology Knowledge Hub here

Read the FAO’s Solutions from connections – 10 elements of agroecology that can guide us toward  sustainable food systems

ARC2020 readings, reports and videos on agroecology

ARC2020 briefing notes on agroecology

Briefing note: Agroecology

Five videos on agroecology

Agroecology: How to make the very best of Europe’s CAP

ARC2020 report Transitioning Towards Agroecology in English, French, Germans, Polish, Greek and Romanian

Innovative brochure ‘Transitioning Towards Agroecology’ launched

Selected ARC2020 articles on agroecology

1st Forum of Agroecology Europe – a Solid Basis for a European-Wide Movement

Meet Olga Alcaraz | Gender Equality in Mexican Agroecology

Digital Revolution in Agriculture: Fitting for Agroecology?

Agroecology | A Tale of Two Continents

Exclusive: Olivier De Schutter on why “a Common Food Policy is urgently needed”

New IPES Food Report – We Need Diversified Agroecological Systems

Elsewhere

Read the Food Tank Op-Ed by José Graziano da Silva Agroecology: A Path to Sustainable Development

“The aim of the Second International Symposium is to identify needs and problems that countries face in the adoption and implementation of agroecology, to evaluate the impact of dedicated public policies, and to identify the capacity-building needs of the relevant institutions. Sustainability and innovation are key words. The future of agriculture and food systems are not input-intensive, but knowledge-intensive. This is a new paradigm”