- The meeting was promoted by the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) and IFAD.
- PARM is set up to facilitate access to and exchange of knowledge, as well as its generation, in the domain of agricultural risk management.
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Youths have been urged to take the lead role in championing biodiversity as an approach to combating the climate risks in food systems.
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) regional climate and environment specialist Paxina Chileshe highlighted their innovative approaches supporting biodiversity conservation and agricultural risk management.
Chileshe stressed the importance of conservation as it is crucial to adapting the current food systems to make them more bio-diverse.
“It helps to support nutritional diversity, adaptation options, and ecosystem resilience in light of climate change, combating desertification and other global threats,” she stated.
Chilese made the remarks at a side event during the World Food Forum.
The youth meeting dubbed “Harnessing Biodiversity's Potential for Managing Climate Risks in Food Systems” was promoted by Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) and IFAD.
PARM is set up to facilitate access to and exchange of knowledge, as well as its generation, in the domain of agricultural risk management.
Its mandate is to strengthen agricultural risk management through knowledge-sharing and capacity-building activities to improve the human capital of all stakeholders that can contribute to a better agricultural risk management system, in particular, vulnerable rural households.
“Adapting our agriculture to make it more respectful to the environment is key to mitigating shocks, boosting productivity, enhancing price stability and consequently creating green jobs,” she added.
PARM’s Capacity Development Expert Francesca Nugnes noted that developing capacities, assessing the risks and investing to halt biodiversity loss are among the possible actions to build on for combating climate risks.
Food safety risk management specialist SafietouSy, a Young Leader at Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYNB) Rodrigue Kaje, and founder of Global Home for Indigenous Peoples (GH4IP) Brijlal Chaudhari also participated in the forum.
They shared their perspectives and experiences in the promotion of biodiversity for food security, climate adaptation and resilience.
The panellists stand up to contribute to the protection of biodiversity in their respective lands as well as through traditional knowledge owned by their communities.
The event also provided an opportunity to promote rural farmers who contribute to the conservation of biodiversity.