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The Agriculture and Biodiversity Initiative works at several levels--from the field/producer level up through regional, national and international market and policy arenas in priority areas and on priority commodities. It requires developing strategic partnerships with agricultural and aquacultural producers, researchers, rural development experts, other NGO's, donor organizations, buyers, and financial institutions to reduce impacts. Some existing partners include:
- Multi-lateral agencies: IFC, UN FAO, World Bank, National Aquaculture Centres of Asia and Pacific (NACA) and GEF;
- Agricultural and Aquacultural producer groups: e.g. palm oil (Malaysia), soy (Paraguay and Brazil), coffee (Tanzania), potatoes (U.S.), shrimp producers (Belize, Vietnam, Madagascar), catfish (Vietnam), Tilapia (Ecuador and Costa Rica), and salmon (Chile);
- Research institutions: EARTH University, Auburn University, University of Wisconsin, Woods Hole, FAO and local institutions.
- NGO's: Protected Harvest, Rainforest Alliance.
On-going and anticipated activities of the Agriculture and Biodiversity Initiative, in collaboration with agricultural experts and researchers, investors, institutes and universities, government agencies, producers, manufacturers, retailers, and other food industry interests, include:
- Establishing collaborative projects with producers in priority ecoregions to identify and accelerate adoption of Better Management Practices (BMPs) for key commodities (e.g. cotton, sugar, palm oil, soy, and cocoa).
- Helping create BMP-based codes of practice and investment screens for more sustainable production of key globally traded commodities.
- Creating the protocols and securing funds for revolving loan funds to cover the transition costs of adopting BMPs.
- Developing and field testing tools to measure agricultural impacts in order to monitor performance of ecolabels, certification programs, and public policy initiatives aimed at reducing adverse environmental impacts.
- Analyzing the environmental impacts of subsidies and market barriers on global production and developing alternative polices that promote the adoption of BMPs.
- Supporting research on such issues as:
- the costs and barriers to rehabilitating degraded land,
- the financial and ecological impacts of retiring marginal agricultural land,
- the development of tradeable development rights to reduce environmental impacts and increase profitability in areas of agricultural expansion, and
- the development of monitoring systems to track effluent problems back to their sources and work with producers to reduce them.
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