By Ann Tutwiler, director general, Bioversity International

As the world's leaders meet to agree on a shared plan of action for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, their primary activity—negotiating numerical targets for thousands of indicators with inscrutable acronyms—can seem far removed from the realities unfolding in the physical world outside, where dramatic changes to rainfall, soils, forests, and wetlands are threatening the quality of life and food security of billions worldwide.
 
But those inscrutable terms translate into real changes that must be made, and one in particular deserves more attention than it is getting.
 
LULUCF, which refers to the "Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry" category for carbon emissions accounting, maintains a rather low profile in the negotiations, yet is charged with missed opportunity.
 
A review undertaken by the UNFCC of the 119 national plans for mitigation (or intended nationally determined contributions, INDCs) reveals that although many make mention of LULUCF, only a few include specific targets or full descriptions of their approach to that sector.
 
Yet this sector holds huge opportunities for reducing emissions (by limiting deforestation and soil-eroding agriculture) and facilitating negative emissions (by planting more forests and using carbon-fixing farming). Concrete commitments along such lines can make a tangible difference to climate targets.
 
They can also help people in poorer countries who are already suffering the privations resulting from floods, droughts, and impoverished landscapes. While climate negotiators may struggle to imagine on-the-ground scenarios where this could happen, the evidence is clear that in some cases, it already is.
 
Our research at Bioversity International demonstrates that strategies that address land use and forests can deliver more than just numbers: they can deliver nourishment.
 
Making informed, climate-aware changes to land use practices can allow agricultural ecosystems to be more productive and more resilient, so that crop yields are boosted, local livelihoods are underpinned, and diets are more nutritious.
 
Such interventions, if scaled up, not only have the potential to hit the sweet spot where climate mitigation and adaptation overlap, but can also work towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals.
 
For example, Ecuadorian farmers normally grow bean variety mixtures.  Our research with Ecuadorian partners demonstrates that when these mixtures are enhanced with more varieties, the farmers not only experience yield increases of up to 32% through improved capacity to grow under uncertain rainfall, but also see a reduction in the severity of common bean rust of up to 50%. As pest and disease outbreaks increase with climate change, this will offer an invaluable tactic for farmers.
 
Reports from Papua New Guinean farmers indicate that our ‘Seeds for Needs’ initiative is having a positive impact on the resilience and adaptability of farms and crop yields in the face of changing rainfall patterns, thanks to the additional varieties of sweet potato and taro made available as a result of the initiative.
 
This same programme has also provided farmers in Ethiopia with access to better-adapted varieties of barley and durum wheat for mitigating climate change risks to their food security. Evaluations undertaken in collaboration with the farmers revealed that many of their traditional landraces perform better than commercial varieties bred specifically for drought resistance.
 
Our work with partners in China, Ecuador, Morocco, and Uganda has shown that mixing resistant varieties of some crops in with more susceptible varieties greatly reduces the incidence of certain pests or diseases. In trials in Uganda, a plot of common beans gave the best results when at least 50% of the plants were of a traditional, pest-resistant variety. A similar trial with mixed banana plants produced a 50% reduction in the infestation rates of weevil attacks. Many of the resistant varieties included are traditional, local ones.
 
The message from these projects is clear: efforts to boost and conserve biodiversity are key to the shifts that provide farmers with more options for managing climatic risks, strengthening the resilience of their agricultural landscapes, and maintaining food and nutrition security as the climate changes. There are many more such examples.
 
At Bioversity International we also research methods for restoring forest landscapes. The potential of forest restoration for climate mitigation is well understood, and is reflected in a number of international programs calling for large expanses of degraded land to be afforested.
 
Our scientists contribute to these efforts by researching the optimal approaches to forest restoration. They have found that paying attention to and maximizing tree biodiversity at the genetic and species levels is key to the success of newly planted tree populations. When landscapes are successfully restored, ecosystem functions and agricultural productivity are also improved, allowing for better human adaptation to environmental stresses.
 
Opportunities such as these for win-win-win interventions, in which climate action requiring little trade-off between adaptation and mitigation also addresses poverty and hunger, are plentiful. Our research demonstrates that biodiversity is essential in order to capitalize on these opportunities, to enable long-term investments while meeting short-term imperatives.
 
In fact, the potential for positive transformation from this perspective is so great that I'd say LULUCF should be as central to a climate change agreement as are transport and energy—and should include a clear imperative to design in biodiversity for every climate-related land project.
 
Biodiversity has always been crucial for agriculture; never more so than now. Climate change and the degradation of soils and fresh water are already having detrimental effects on global food production, which are hitting the poorest hardest. It is tragic and deeply ironic that modern agriculture is not only playing a part in destabilizing the climate but is also laying waste to biodiversity, crippling the planet's capacity to correct for our indiscretions.
 
This presents us with a crisis and a bitter lesson—and also a one-off opportunity. Focusing on the complexities and opportunities within the LULUCF category reminds us there are ways of helping us ride the storm while at the same time calming it. Those ways call for a renewed respect for biodiversity and redoubled efforts to conserve and enhance it, using the local expertise and scientific capacity at our disposal.