AGROSAVIA promotes innovation in the academic agenda of COP16

• AGROSAVIA is immersed in the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity (COP16), with an academic-scientific commitment with three scenarios: The Blue Zone, the Green Zone, and the Palmira Research Center, from October 22 to October 31.

 

Bogota, Capital District. October 21, 2024. Corporación colombiana de investigación agropecuaria – AGROSAVIA will participate in COP16 in two scenarios: The Blue Zone and the Green Zone, and will also carry out some activities at the Palmira Research Center from October 21 to October 31 regarding the conservation and use of biodiversity.

COP16 is the most important event in terms of biodiversity worldwide, where the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will be evaluated, established at COP15 held in Canada as the roadmap to stop and reverse the loss of biodiversity, which contains 23 goals to be met by 2030 (WWF, 2024).

AGROSAVIA will be present in these two areas through a huge deployment that will highlight all the AGROBIODIVERSITY of which we are custodians through the Germplasm Banks of the Nation and which has been the basis of the knowledge that we generate through research, programs, and projects that we carry out in the Corporation, and a fundamental piece in the relationship and joint construction with the communities, which can be seen represented in initiatives such as the National Seed Plan [Plan Nacional de Semillas] and the maize "rematriation" processes that were carried out in 2024 with the Kamëntsa Indigenous people in Sibundoy, Putumayo.

Germplasm Banks and the National Seed Plan were our priority research areas for the creation of Colombia Bioconecta, a digital platform launched on August 5, which seeks to promote collaboration with more than 20 research centers, including AGROSAVIA and academic institutions nationwide that are dedicated to promoting international cooperation and positive environmental impact (Home - COP16 Colombia Bioconecta (cop16vallebio.org)). In the Green Zone, this platform will have the opportunity to be presented in Plaza de San Francisco on October 24 to raise awareness of the importance of these two topics and make progress on global efforts to conserve biodiversity.

In addition, in the Green Zone, AGROSAVIA will host two anchor events of the Genetic Resources thematic axis with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT on October 22. We will be present with the forum "The ITPGRFA (International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture), a tool to make progress on the implementation of the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) objectives and a commitment to a more sustainable and equitable use of genetic resources," and the event "Integrated conservation and sustainable use, the future of agrobiodiversity."

In this Zone, AGROSAVIA will also participate with national and international allies in events related to sustainable systems, regenerative agriculture, agroecology, and climate action, among others.

In the Blue Zone, we will be present with a team to accompany the negotiations regarding digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI), synthetic biology and biodiversity, and climate change. In parallel, we will participate with our researchers in two events: "Lessons learned from the DeSIRA projects on new avenues of research to support biodiversity through agroecological innovations in agriculture and food systems," with the help of the European Union on October 27 and "Promoting the biodiversity agenda through seed systems and farmers' rights in the natural environment," on October 30 together with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, CropTrust, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, seed custodian networks and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO, among others.

At our Palmira Research Center, we will highlight its outstanding work as host of several events, including one organized jointly with the Presidential Agency of Colombia for International Cooperation - APC Colombia (for its acronym in Spanish) on October 23, within the framework of the South-South Cooperation Route, which seeks to take COP16 participants to the territory to exchange knowledge and identify solutions to challenges of biodiversity care. We will show them our experience with Germplasm Banks, citrus production in protected environments, and the actions taken against Fusairum R4T that attacks plantain and banana crops.

Furthermore, the Palmira Research Center will receive approximately 2,000 indigenous people belonging to 80 original communities of Colombia, with whom we will organize a multi-colored area in which essential scenarios will be generated for the exchange of knowledge and culture. A space to demonstrate the Corporation's commitment to working together with ancestral peoples, who, in turn, are interested in being present at a space like COP16.

On the other hand, several of our researchers and support teams have been invited to present the progress made and the results obtained through research in the Colombian agricultural sector at events organized by other entities and organizations such as Instituto Humboldt, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Universidad Nacional, Universidad Santiago de Cali, Universidad de la Salle, among others.

To register and participate in some of the events or for more information, we invite you to download the following brochure, where you can find the dates, times, locations, and other necessary details (Click here to download the brochure).