Mainstreaming ecosystem services and biodiversity into agricultural production and management in East Africa
This Technical Guidance Document addresses the need for mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem services into agriculture, at the national level. More specifically, it is aimed to assist countries in developing and implementing their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSA Ps), to consider ecosystem services – and opportunities for their management – in agricultural production systems. Through an EU -funded project on “Capacity-building related to multilateral agreements (MEA s) in AC P countries (Phase 2)”, this document focuses on the East Africa region, and provides concrete examples and cases primarily from Kenya. The intention is that this document provides practical guidance to countries for building institutional capacity for synergistic implementation of MEAs, and identifying opportunities for managing biodiversity and ecosystem services to reduce the use of chemical inputs. It considers issues at the technical, institutional and policy levels. This publication is a result of technical papers prepared by experts on specific topics related to biodiversity and ecosystem services in agriculture but also on social and cross-cutting dimensions such as indigenous and traditional knowledge.