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Info Service on Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge (Oct24/06) Green Grabbing: A growing threat to biodiversity and communities Ahead of international biodiversity negotiations, two new briefings highlight the dangers of green grabs and the urgent need for community-led and agroecological solutions. IPES-Food is releasing two new briefings for decision-makers and key actors attending international negotiations on biodiversity – the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 in Cali, Colombia – to highlight the dangers of green grabs and the urgent need for community-led and agroecological solutions.
These briefings build on IPES-Food’s research on the Land Squeeze, which reveals how increasing land pressures harm communities and ecosystems alike. 1. How Green Grabs Undermine Biodiversity and Communities As the world grapples with the biodiversity and climate crises, an alarming trend is emerging: green grabbing. These threaten to displace local communities and Indigenous Peoples, erode food security, and damage biodiversity – under the guise of environmental progress. Green grabbing has the potential to become “the biggest land grab in history” – jeopardizing not only livelihoods but also the biodiversity these groups help protect. Green grabs occur when land is repurposed for projects like carbon offsetting, biodiversity reserves, afforestation, or clean energy production. With governments increasingly turning to these methods to meet climate and biodiversity goals, we must scrutinize their real impacts. A call for community-led solutions As the CBD Parties gather for COP16, the need to challenge these misguided conservation and offsetting approaches is urgent. Governments must reject land grabs and offsetting schemes in favour of community-led conservation models and agroecological practices. 2. Preserving Agrobiodiversity: A Path to Resilient Food Systems Agrobiodiversity – the variety of crops, livestock, fisheries, and wild species in food and agriculture – is a vital but overlooked component sustaining food production and resilient ecosystems. With 50% of the world’s habitable land used for agriculture, protecting this biodiversity is crucial to achieving Global Biodiversity Framework goals. Industrial agriculture, relying on monocultures and chemical inputs, is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss – responsible for deforestation, species endangerment, and habitat destruction. It has wiped out diversity of landscapes and resilience in food systems, leaving them vulnerable to climate shocks, diseases, and market fluctuations. The importance of agroecology Agroecological food production, however, offers a proven solution: enhancing biodiversity while improving soil health, and farmer livelihoods, while increasing resilience to climate shocks. Governments must integrate agroecological principles into their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to foster food systems that are climate-resilient, productive, and biodiversity-enhancing, supporting multiple Global Biodiversity Framework targets. By addressing the root causes of green grabbing and agrobiodiversity loss, we can create a more just and sustainable future for both people and the planet. “ It’s time decision-makers take concrete steps to halt bogus ‘green grabs’ and invest in rural development, sustainable farming and community-led conservation. Opening the floodgates to speculative capital and offsets is ruining livelihoods and land rights. Bottom line, we’ve got to make some serious changes to democratise land ownership if we want to ensure a sustainable future for nature, food production and rural communities.” Sofía Monsalve Suárez, IPES-Food expert
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