Changing the way fruit is gathered from a "tree of life" could have hugely positive environmental and financial impacts in Amazonia, according to a new study.
Experts gather to help the country’s readiness for the 15th Conference of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
To support Peru’s preparations, on 30 June 2021, World Agroforestry (ICRAF) organised a virtual meeting, Stakeholders Meeting Trees on Farms: Presentation of Progress 2020–2021, within the framework of the Harnessing the Potential of Trees on Farms for Meeting National and Global Biodiversity Targets project, known as Trees on Farms for Biodiversity or, simply, Trees on Farms, which is funded by the International Climate Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
In Peru, the Trees on Farms project team has been promoting the role of trees in farmland, providing evidence to support enhanced policies and official definitions of agroforestry to help achieve the Government’s objectives in relation to the National Biodiversity Strategy and commitments made to the Convention.
Incorporating trees into farms can enhance biodiversity and strengthen the sustainability of agriculture: a message increasingly shared among government ministries in Peru. The country is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and must report on progress in meeting targets for both.
Peru’s Biodiversity Strategic Plan, a requirement under the Convention on Biological Diversity, includes efforts to achieve Aichi Target 7: ‘By 2020, areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry will be sustainably managed, ensuring the conservation of biological diversity’.
However, the Plan pays no attention to trees in the agricultural matrix nor their contribution to biodiversity. Moreover, non-forest trees in these productive areas are ‘invisible’, that is, they are not counted in important national assessments, such as the National Forest Inventory and the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.