On 7 June 2021, the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) Forum 2021 on “Agrifood Systems in the Bioeconomy” (hereafter “the forum”) was held successfully online. Dr. Linxiu Zhang, Director of United Nations Environment Programme – International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP), attended the first plenary session of the forum and made a presentation.
In the first plenary session on “Agrifood systems for sustainable development”, Dr. Linxiu Zhang, Director of UNEP-IEMP, made a presentation with the theme of " Enhancing AgriFood System Resilience for Sustainable Livelihoods ". In her presentation, Dr. Zhang introduced the institution background of UNEP-IEMP, the three planetary crises (biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, climate change, ) facing agrifood systems, and strategy and nexus approaches to enhancing agrifood systems resilience from UNEP-IEMP, UNEP and the broader UN system. She also took the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture & Food (TEEBAgriFood), Agrobiodiversity Conservation for Resilient Livelihoods in the Rupa Lake Watershed of Nepal, and the Farmers’ Seed System Enhancement project as examples, and shared the experience and achievements of UNEP-IEMP in applying nexus approaches to enhancing agrifood systems resilience.
Finally, she put forward a key summary around agrifood systems improvement and the realization of sustainable development goals, and highlighted the importance of nexus approaches, policy support on agrobiodiversity and agroecology, system approaches and multi-stakeholder platforms and women empowerment.
Dr. Linxiu Zhang, Director of UNEP-IEMP, making a presentation at the forum
Given that the transition to a bioeconomy is a potential game changer that may have a large impact on food and nutrition security, as well as on the ways in which agrifood systems are designed and operated, the IAMO Forum 2021 was themed on “Agrifood Systems in the Bioeconomy”. The forum aims to collect the insights from scholars all over the world on the development of bioeconomy, the impacts on agrifood systems, and the economic, ecological and social effects, in order to understand the potential of agricultural food systems in the transition to a bioeconomy.
During the forum, scientists, policy makers and professionals from the international community shared their insights and had in-depth discussions on economic and interdisciplinary researches in the field of agrifood systems in the bioeconomy. The topics covered in the forum include:
- Land and labor market effects of bio-based products
- Land use effects of biomass production
- Trade-offs between sustainable development goals in the bioeconomy
- To own, to share or to cooperate? – social innovations in agrifood systems
- Governance instruments and institutions of the bioeconomy
- Bioclusters and regionalized value chains
- The role of innovation policy in regional economic development
- Economic effects of new bioeconomy crops
- The place of the agricultural sector in the circular bioeconomy
- No limits? – ethical and public debates around sustainability and new (bio)technologies
Scientists, policy makers and professionals from the international community attending the forum online
For more information about the event, please click here.
