The report "Boosting Biodiversity Action through Agroecology" provides guidance for incorporating agroecology into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to support the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). This will also advance implementation of the SDGs, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and objectives of international food policies, including the UN Committee on World Food Security and the UN Food Systems Summit.

This Guidance aims to provide readers with an understanding of the advantages of agroecology, the connections between agroecological principles and the GBF targets, the processes for integrating agroecology to NBSAP development, the intervention areas for agroecological food system transitions, and the enabling processes to facilitate implementation and achieve NBSAP national targets.

Key Concepts

Agroecology is framed as a powerful tool for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience, based on principles that consider the entire food system, including local and traditional agricultural practices. Defined by the FAO’s 10 Elements and the 13 Principles of agroecology (Table 1.1, p. 11), it aims to create sustainable food systems that optimize resource use, promote resilience, and uphold social justice.

Strategic Directions

Agroecology and Biodiversity: Agroecology is highlighted as a vital approach for addressing biodiversity loss linked to food production. It contrasts with industrial agriculture, which often drives biodiversity degradation through monocultures, high chemical inputs, and unsustainable land use. By promoting biodiversity-friendly practices, agroecology integrates the conservation of genetic resources and ecosystem diversity across landscapes.

Integration with GBF Targets: The GBF, adopted at COP15, emphasizes transformative actions across sectors, including food and agriculture. Agroecology aligns with multiple GBF targets, especially Target 10, which focuses on sustainable practices in agriculture, aquaculture, and forestry. By mainstreaming agroecology into NBSAPs, countries can achieve synergistic benefits across GBF targets.

Intervention Areas for GBF Target Clusters: The guidance suggests agroecological interventions across production, consumption, and market practices. Such interventions, if incorporated into NBSAPs, would address key GBF clusters:

• Reducing Threats to Biodiversity: groecological measures can maintain, conserve, restore, and enhance the ecological and social processes that underpin ecosystem integrity, for example by transitioning from agrochemical to biological inputs and natural cycles–based farming.

• Meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing:  Agroecological interventions empower farmers and food providers to protect, nurture, and enhance biodiversity and be rewarded fairly, while also promoting circular economy principles and strengthening regional food systems.

• Tools and Solutions for Implementation and Mainstreaming: These efforts prioritize marginalized groups — such as smallholder farmers, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities — who are pivotal in biodiversity conservation. Additionally, agroecological approaches promote sustainable, healthy diets and consumption, and foster knowledge co-creation and exchange.

Policy and Institutional Support: To facilitate agroecology adoption, the report recommends coherent policies that establish incentives for profound and systemic changes, redirect food system actors away from harmful practices, facilitate knowledge exchanges and  support market development Transformative financing for biodiversity and agroecology should increase funding flows but also address issues of justice, historical legacies and ecological debt that shape financing institutions, flows, and arrangements. Institutional capacity for designing, implementing, and monitoring NBSAPs is another key lever for success. Emphasis is placed on participatory governance, which includes stakeholders from multiple sectors—farmers, Indigenous groups, researchers, and local authorities—ensuring the inclusive co-creation of biodiversity strategies.

Case studies from Kenya, Peru, Cambodia, Brasil and Senegal