Sierra Leone Telegraph: 03 November 2026:
Ministers from six countries have called for urgent action to transform food systems to help close the global biodiversity implementation gap, as governments at COP17 confront slow progress towards their 2030 nature targets.
With more than half of the 23 global biodiversity targets dependent on transforming food systems, representatives from Sierra Leone, Brazil, Norway, Italy, Cambodia and Viet Nam are calling for greater investment and stronger coordination across agriculture, environment, climate and finance ministries to accelerate delivery.
They urge governments, financial institutions, development partners and the private sector to step up investment in agroecological approaches, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, agroforestry and landscape restoration.
There’s not only the need for increased finance, but the need for quality, predictability and accessibility to ensure smallholders, women, youth and local communities benefit from investment, they add.
In the joint statement ministers who are members of the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation, point to ways to turn targets into action, based on national experience of investing in sustainable food systems and protecting the environment.
Outcomes can be seen across restoration, reduced nutrient loading, improved soil health and food loss and waste:
* Deforestation in the Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade.
* 5.5 million saplings have been distributed as part of Cambodia’s Green Sprouts tree planting programme.
* 100% of Norway’s forests are now certified to global standards.
* Almost 215,000 hectares is under organic management in Sierra Leone.
ACF members are working towards healthier ecosystems by making nature restoration and protection central to cross-ministerial food system strategies. Environment, climate, agriculture, fisheries, and forestry agencies are working together under the necessary legal mandate, with designated operations, and defined budgets.
Sierra Leone’s Feed Salone, for example, launched by President Bio, has made food security a national priority, increasing national spending on agricultural transformation from 2% to 8% since 2023.
Jiwoh Abdulai, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Sierra Leone said: “Agreeing targets is the easy part. Implementation is where the real work begins. With Sierra Leone’s environment and agriculture ministries working as one, we are giving biodiversity a place in our laws, institutions and budgets. Our farmers are already restoring the land that feeds us. What we need now is finance that is as committed as they are.”
Carina Pimenta, National Secretary for Bioeconomy, Brazil said: “Brazil has shown how to bring deforestation down. There is much more to do. The next step is to speed up bringing degraded land back into production. Standing forests and restored, productive, land are a better deal for communities, livelihoods and food security.”
H.E. Dr. Eang Sophalleth, Minister of Environment, Cambodia, said: “With 41 percent of our territory protected and a new biodiversity plan to 2030, Cambodia is turning commitments into action. This goes hand-in-hand with improving livelihoods, strengthening food security and creating economic opportunities for farmers. That’s why we are bringing our ministries together so that farming and fishing work with nature, not against it. We call on the international community to accelerate this through matching our actions with the necessary finance and resources.”
Nguyen Quoc Tri, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment, Viet Nam said: “Viet Nam’s One Million Hectares programme is showing that farmers can grow more rice with less harm to nature. Where the new practices are applied, fertiliser use is down by around 30 percent, water use by 20 percent and pesticide sprays have been cut, while yields and profits have gone up. With agriculture and environment now in one ministry, we can scale this from more than 350,000 hectares today to a million. The targets have been agreed. This is how we deliver them.”
Paul Gulleik Larsen, Special Envoy for Climate & Food Systems for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway said: “Today, ACF countries from the North and the South are responding to the biodiversity implementation gap, focusing ministries, budgets and mandates on food systems transformation, one of our most powerful levers for change. Norway is ready to back the people delivering on the ground.”
Emma Williams, Head of Secretariat, Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation says: “The political will to transform food systems exists. This ACF members’ biodiversity snapshot shows what it takes to turn this into action: mandates, institutions and budgets that put nature and resilience at the heart of how we produce food. The solutions exist. This is how we scale them.”
Read the Ministers Joint Statement:
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/10oAmq3I4IMbQHiypNO2YLjx0TcDH4_5rXVf6tJnLtZ4/edit?tab=t.0>
Joint statement of ministers who are members of the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation:
<https://allianceofchampions.org/>
Further examples of Biodiversity Snapshot, ‘Food Systems for Nature: Closing the Implementation Gap’ :
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