TWN Info Service on Sustainable Agriculture
12 October 2026
Third World Network
www.twn.my
Dear Friends and Colleagues
Centring Agroecology in GBF Target 10 to Catalyse Food System Transformation
Target 10 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is central to reversing biodiversity loss across agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and aquaculture. Yet its inclusion of conflicting approaches—particularly “sustainable intensification”—puts its transformative potential at risk.
This paper shows how centring agroecology in Target 10 can catalyse genuine food systems transformation—restoring ecosystem integrity, strengthening livelihoods and nutrition, and safeguarding the right to food—rather than legitimising business-as-usual under the guise of sustainability. Agroecological food and farming systems represent a powerful and necessary entry point for addressing the interconnected biodiversity, climate, nutrition, and social crises. This transformation must encompass not only how food is produced but also how food is consumed, governed, and valued across society.
Governments have a central responsibility to embed agroecology at the heart of updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans, agricultural policies, and climate adaptation frameworks. This includes adopting biodiversity-centred indicators, phasing out harmful input intensive subsidies, supporting diversified agroecological farming systems, and ensuring that national food environments do not incentivise highly processed, biodiversity-eroding foods. By redesigning public finance, procurement, extension services, and regulatory frameworks, governments can create enabling conditions for agroecological transformation and help realign economic incentives with ecological integrity.
With best wishes,
Third World Network
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GBF-ALIGNED NBSAPS TO ENSURE JUST, SUSTAINABLE FUTURES FOR ALL LIFE TO THRIVE: THE ROLE OF AFRICAN CIVIL SOCIETY
Factsheet 7
Target 10: Enhance biodiversity and sustainability in agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, and forestry
By Linzi Lewis
African Centre for Biodiversity
NBSAPs_factsheet-7_target-10_fin.pdf
May 2026
About this paper
Industrial agriculture is the leading driver of global biodiversity loss, yet it remains inadequately integrated into biodiversity conservation strategies, policies, and implementation processes. Target 10 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM–GBF) presents an important opportunity to transform food and farming systems, but its broad and contradictory language makes it vulnerable to misinterpretation.
This paper aims to clarify how Target 10 should be understood and operationalised, using a food systems lens and emphasising agroecology as the approach most consistent with ecosystem integrity, biodiversity conservation, and long-term food security. While agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, and fisheries are all encompassed within the target, this paper focuses primarily on agriculture and food systems due to their outsized impacts on biodiversity. It also provides guidance for African governments and civil society on embedding agroecology in updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), ensuring Target 10 drives meaningful transformation rather than reinforcing existing industrial models.
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Conclusion
It is essential that agricultural areas shift from an extractive, resource-depleting model geared toward global export value chains to agroecological systems that regenerate soils, integrate biodiversity, and strengthen food sovereignty and territorially rooted food networks. Agroecological food and farming systems, while not a panacea, represent a powerful and necessary entry point for addressing the interconnected biodiversity, climate, nutrition, and social crises confronting Africa. This transformation must encompass not only how food is produced but also how food is consumed, governed, and valued across society.
Shifting dietary patterns is central to this broader transition. Moving away from ultra-processed foods and diets heavily reliant on industrially produced meat toward diverse, minimally processed whole-food diets—closely aligned with Indigenous and traditional African foodways—can significantly reduce pressure on land, water, and biodiversity. Such diets, based on locally adapted crops, pulses, traditional grains, wild and gathered foods, and culturally embedded culinary practices, contribute to improved nutrition, strengthened resilience, and ecological sustainability. Aligning public procurement, school feeding policies, and national dietary guidelines with these whole-food, culturally grounded dietary shifts can reinforce agroecological transitions in production landscapes.
Governments, therefore, have a central responsibility to embed agroecology at the heart of updated NBSAPs, agricultural policies, and climate adaptation frameworks. This includes adopting biodiversity-centred indicators, phasing out harmful input intensive subsidies, supporting diversified agroecological farming systems, and ensuring that national food environments do not incentivise highly processed, biodiversity-eroding foods. By redesigning public finance, procurement, extension services, and regulatory frameworks, governments can create enabling conditions for agroecological transformation and help realign economic incentives with ecological integrity.