CGIAR Accredited to UNEA: Bringing Food, Land, and Water Systems into Global Environmental Policy dialogues

CGIAR, the world’s largest agricultural research partnership, has been officially accredited as an intergovernmental organization (IGO) to the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA). This milestone grants CGIAR observer status at UNEA, enabling participation in its sessions and subsidiary bodies, including the upcoming UNEA-7 in December. This milestone formally positions CGIAR within the highest level of global environmental governance and strengthening its role as a trusted scientific partner in support of UN Member States.  It enables the organization to bring agricultural science into high-level environmental governance, helping bridge gaps between food systems and environmental goals.

This development comes at a crucial time. As the world seeks urgent solutions to the “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, CGIAR brings over 50 years of agricultural innovation and scientific evidence to these critical discussions. With this new role, CGIAR can ensure that food, land, and water systems are fully considered in global environmental policy.

Accreditation also improves CGIAR’s ability to inform high-level decisions by providing science-based recommendations directly to environment ministers and policymakers. It strengthens ongoing collaborations, such as the CGIAR Nature-Positive Initiative with UNEP, and positions CGIAR to contribute more directly to international campaigns and resolutions on sustainability.

Advancing Global Environmental Policy through Science

UNEA accreditation significantly enhances CGIAR’s engagement in global policy processes. As an official observer, CGIAR can support Member States by offering scientific input on key issues including climate change, biodiversity conservation, and land degradation. This creates a formal channel for CGIAR experts and scientists to contribute to UNEA discussions, submit scientific papers, and influence policy development.

Crucially, this status, coordinated by CGIAR’s Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program -ensures agriculture and land-use perspectives are better represented in global negotiations. Agriculture both contributes to and is affected by environmental crises. Through UNEA, CGIAR can highlight the importance of sustainable practices, such as agroecology and food systems transformation, in achieving climate, biodiversity, and land restoration goals.

This will also allow CGIAR to promote greater policy coherence across sectors, aligning agricultural development with environmental targets to ensure food-systems’ solutions also support climate resilience, biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, and healthy landscapes.

Supporting the Rio Conventions

CGIAR’s UNEA accreditation strengthens its ability to contribute to the objectives of the three “Rio Conventions”: the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

These conventions share intertwined goals: mitigating climate change, halting biodiversity loss, and reversing land degradation.

With a seat at UNEA, CGIAR can:

• Under UNFCCC: Provide evidence on climate-resilient crops, climate-smart agriculture, and low-emissions farming for national climate action plans.
• Under CBD: Offer research on agrobiodiversity, ecosystem services, and nature-positive practices to inform biodiversity strategies.
• Under UNCCD: Share expertise in sustainable land management and soil restoration to help countries achieve land degradation neutrality.

Importantly, CGIAR’s presence can help foster greater synergy among the three conventions. Many of the solutions, such as agroforestry or landscape restoration, deliver co-benefits across all three domains. CGIAR is committed to using its science to highlight and enable these win-win approaches.

One of CGIAR’s strategic goals is to influence the coherence and cooperation of the Rio Conventions through the synthesis and dissemination of scientific evidence. As an accredited UNEA observer, CGIAR can play a pivotal role in encouraging more integrated and mutually reinforcing actions under the three conventions.

The Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program: A Systems-Based Solution

The MFL Program exemplifies this integrated approach. Its vision is to foster thriving, biodiverse, low-emissions, and healthy landscapes that support both people and nature. The program applies agroecological, nature-positive, and complementary methods to simultaneously improve food production, rural livelihoods, biodiversity, and ecosystem health. As an accredited observer, CGIAR can champion nature-positive, climate-smart agriculture on the world stage and influence policy that shapes the future of the planet and people.

MFL is designed to generate the evidence and innovations countries need to meet their Rio Convention commitments, across climate, biodiversity, and land targets, while also contributing to poverty reduction and food security.

Looking Ahead: Integrating Agricultural Science into Global Environmental Governance

As countries strive to meet global targets, from the Paris Agreement to the Global Biodiversity Framework and land neutrality goals by 2030, CGIAR will play a critical role in translating these agreements into action. Through initiatives like the Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program, CGIAR is helping nations incorporate scientific evidence into their national strategies and implementation plans.

By embedding agricultural innovation within global environmental discourse, CGIAR will drive the systemic transformations needed for a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future, fulfilling the promise of the Rio Conventions and beyond.

Authors: Regina Edward-Uwadiale and Wandera Ojanji (CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes)