Agricultural experts and environmentalists from around the world have called for increased international collaboration to safeguard agricultural biodiversity and promote sustainable development. This appeal was made during the third International Agrobiodiversity Congress, which began on Tuesday in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China.
The congress serves as a platform for sharing knowledge, technologies, and experiences in agricultural biodiversity, aiming to foster a more resilient and sustainable global food system.
“We still have people facing food insecurity and malnutrition, and agrobiodiversity is a key element of the solution,” said Marcela Quintero, deputy director general of the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), one of the event’s organizers. “If we don’t put more agrobiodiversity on people’s plates, we won’t be able to tackle the issue effectively.”
The three-day event focuses on six key areas: the role of agricultural biodiversity in driving economic growth, mitigating climate change, improving environmental health, promoting healthy diets, advancing gender and social inclusion, and developing effective conservation and management strategies.
Yunnan Province is one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world. It hosted the first phase of the COP15 conference in 2021, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in late 2022, has laid a foundation for global efforts to address the biodiversity crisis. Scientists at the event believe that China’s experiences—particularly Yunnan’s localized practices—can offer valuable insights to other countries.
“China is one of the world’s largest producers and consumers. It can play a significant role in demonstrating how biodiversity conservation can be achieved and in setting rules and incentives for the rest of the world to follow,” said Raquibul Amin, an official with the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Asia Regional Office.
Zhu Youyong, a prominent agricultural scientist in Yunnan and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, highlighted the province’s contributions to agrobiodiversity.
“By tapping into the genetic resources of traditional crop varieties, we’ve developed new rice strains that thrive in dryland conditions while maintaining high yield and quality. This is a significant achievement in agricultural biodiversity,” Zhu told reporters.
With worsening biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, participants emphasized that enhanced global cooperation is essential.
Yang Zhenhai, party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), another congress organizer, reiterated China’s commitment to joint action.
“CAAS is ready to work with all partners to fully unlock the potential of biodiversity,” Yang said. “We will continue to strengthen research on genetic resource conservation and utilization—particularly of wild relatives and locally adapted varieties—while advancing eco-agriculture models that align food production with ecological protection.”
A key outcome of the congress will be the release of the 2025 Kunming Declaration: Agrobiodiversity for More Effective Global Food Systems. The declaration will underscore the strategic importance of agricultural biodiversity in tackling the global food crisis and climate change. It will also propose innovative financing mechanisms and policy recommendations, promote transnational cooperation platforms, and support genetic resource sharing, technology transfer, and capacity building. This is expected to inject new momentum into global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
