Reducing the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, feeding the world, and slowing global warming will be key challenges over the next forty years. Agricultural production will need to increase to supply more food and feed stock for renewable fuels but this will have to be achieved with less land, water and other resources than in the past. So, farming systems will need to become much more resource efficient, sustainable, and adaptable. Similarly, biodiversity conservation will have to evolve in the context of global warming to ensure that species distributions can adapt so that ecosystem services are maintained.

UNEP-WCMC is focusing on the following topics:

• Developing systems to assist in integrating development and conservation concerns into decisions about land use change.
• Looking for closer links between the models that predict future demand for agricultural products with those that predict land use change and impacts on biodiversity to improve our planning for future landuse.
• Assessing the biodiversity benefits of different farming systems to draw together best practice guidance for different situations.
• Working with the conservation community to re-examine priorities and ways of working in relation to food and agriculture.
• Bringing biodiversity considerations into agriculture policies and incentive schemes for maintaining biodiversity agricultural landscapes.