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IUCN Statement | 21 Dec, 2023

IUCN joins non-state actors calling for action to transform food systems

For the first time since the Rio Declaration in 1992, world leaders at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates recognised and promised to tackle the huge interdependency and responsibility that agriculture and food systems have in climate change, biodiversity loss, and conflict.

At COP28, more than 150 countries signed up the Emirates' Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action.

IUCN has joined the call from the UAE high-level climate champion, Razan Al Mubarak, who also serves as IUCN President, to join the Call to Action for Transforming Food Systems for People, Nature, and Climate, which was signed by more than 200 non-State actors.

These unprecedented initiatives mobilise collective efforts to transform our food systems to be more resilient, fair, and sustainable for people, nature, and climate by 2030.

On 10 December 2023, as a contribution to the call to action, IUCN submitted a statement with a series of commitments, on which IUCN will report annually. The statement is below:

IUCN is composed of State and non-State actors. We support the COP28 call to action and will contribute to foster the transformation towards nature positive and climate friendly, resilient, nutritious, and inclusive food systems. More specifically, IUCN commits to contribute to:   

  • Protect, conserve, and restore nature and biodiversity, including by halting and reversing loss of forests and other important ecosystems;

  • Recognise the contribution of agroecological and regenerative agriculture and food production system to ecosystem services provision, biodiversity conservation, and ecological connectivity in production landscapes, including their role to ensure that by 2030 at least 30 percent of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems areas are effectively conserved and managed;

  • Take stock, incentivise, and facilitate production and access to knowledge, including traditional knowledge with prior and informed consent, and ensure its dissemination, including through appropriate knowledge products and tools;

  • Support to mobilise the conservation community and IPLCs, including women, youth, and marginal groups, and  accelerate engagement with the agriculture and food sector, through the scaling-up of local, national, regional, and global Common Ground Dialogues;

  • Use all opportunities to engage decision makers from both the public and the private sector, to increase investments in Nature-based Solutions, as solutions to support the transition to agroecological and regenerative food systems, and ensure continuous monitoring of impacts on land health.