The conference was driven by the urgency of the challenges that we face in our food systems and by the pressing need for support to deploy systems-based solutions provided. The Global Nature Fund (GNF), coordinator of the European Business and Biodiversity Campaign, participated in the Conference and, together with its partners, presented the relevance of biodiversity for SFS.
The conference was hosted by South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry attracting more than 150 participants from 28 countries, spanning governmental representatives, national and regional organisations, private sector, civil society organisations, UN agencies and research institutions. The aim of the conference was to provide a dialogue platform to consolidate collaborative initiatives, jump-start new alliances, and encourage organisations to accelerate the shift in food systems. The conference was made possible with the support of FAO, Hivos, Nestlé, The Netherlands, the City of Tshwane, Switzerland, UN Environment, and WWF.
In the conference session on "Sustainability along all food value chains" Urs Schenker, from Nestlé presented the core initiative "Measure, Value and Communicate Biodiversity in Food Systems". GNF as leader of the EU LIFE project "
Biodiversity in Standards and Labels for the Food Sector" is partner of the SFS Programme and this core initiative, which aims to improve measures, standards, and valuation methods for agricultural, fishery and wild biodiversity. Furthermore the initiative aims to motivate companies, developers of standards and other actors to use tools and methods in order to increase the biodiversity performance of the food sector. GNF will contribute among others the
Biodiversity Performance Tool which will be released in 2018.
For more information about the outcomes of the First Global Conference of the SFS Programme:
http://www.scpclearinghouse.org/sustainable-food-system/1st-global-conference-sfs-programme
For more information on the Core Initiative:
http://www.scpclearinghouse.org/initiative/complementing-existing-value-chain-sustainability-assessments-measuring-communicating-and