The Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) has announced today the organisation will sign the Global Landscapes Forum charter, becoming its 29th member. The Crop Trust joins a global community of like-minded organizations such as the World Bank Group, WWF, the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations Environment Program and Conservation International in working towards achieving the sustainable development agenda.

The Crop Trust is the only international organization dedicated solely to conserving and making available crop diversity. Supporting genebanks, which are vital to conserving the world’s rapidly disappearing crop diversity, is core to the Crop Trust’s mission. The seeds and plant diversity safeguarded within genebanks is the foundation of agriculture, enabling it to adapt to meet the accelerating challenge of sustainably producing sufficient and nutritious food for an increasing population in the face of the climate crisis and other environmental shocks. 

Founded in 2013, GLF is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on sustainable land use, dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement. GLF has connected 5,100 organizations and 200,000 participants at its gatherings in Warsaw, Lima, London, Paris, Marrakech, Jakarta, Bonn, Washington D.C., Nairobi, Katowice, Kyoto, New York, Accra and Luxembourg – and reached 830 million on through social and global media from 185 countries.

“Ensuring the conservation and use of the world’s crop diversity is critical and urgent, especially in the context of growing population and the challenges of a rapidly changing climate,” says Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of Crop Trust. “These issues deserve far greater attention, and they need it now. That’s why we are delighted to join GLF in working towards sustainable solutions to the daunting and urgent global challenges facing our food systems.” 

GLF and the Crop Trust will launch the partnership through a series of collaborative campaigns – ranging from sustainable gastronomy to promoting specialty crops like coffee to celebrating food’s cultural significance.  The campaigns will emphasize the critical importance of conserving and using the world’s crop diversity to ensure healthy landscapes and sustainable food production. 

“We are very pleased that the Crop Trust is becoming a GLF charter member, and look forward to an increased collaboration with them towards ensuring the diversity and future of the world’s food crops”’ says Robert Nasi, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), a founding member of GLF. “Genetic diversity remains a foundation of sustainable agriculture and landscape restoration.”

Both organizations are associated with CGIAR, a global research partnership that aims to reduce poverty, improve food and nutrition security and improve natural resources and ecosystem services. 

The Crop Trust has a mission to ensure humanity conserves and makes available the world’s crop diversity for future food security. It was founded in 2004 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and Bioversity International on behalf of the CGIAR. It provides financial support for the key international genebanks that make the diversity of our most important food crops available to all under the International Treaty; tools and support for the efficient management of genebanks; coordination between conserving institutions to ensure that all crop diversity is protected, accessible and used; and final backup of crop seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement. The Forum takes a holistic approach to create sustainable landscapes that are productive, prosperous, equitable and resilient and considers five cohesive themes of food and livelihood initiatives, landscape restoration, rights, finance and measuring progress. It is led

by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in collaboration with its co-founders UN Environment and the World Bank and Charter Members.