Mainstreaming biodiversity for food, nutrition and human well-being in Sri Lanka through cross-sectoral collaborations and intervening with a comprehensive review on existing polices, regulatory frameworks and evaluation of gaps.

In Sri Lanka, the policy embedding body is secured with tight regulations and intervening requires multi-sectoral collaborations, BFN Project played a major role in strengthening the cross-sectoral linkages from the inception of the project. The National Steering Committee formed the initial multi-diverse forum much needed in Sri Lanka for addressing issues on mainstreaming biodiversity for food, nutrition and human well-being. A comprehensive review carried out by BFN on existing polices and regulatory frameworks to support the mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use across sectors for food security, nutrition, health, livelihoods, environmental services & education built a stronghold for proceeding with cross-sectoral intervening. The existing national agriculture policy has 22 thrust areas which needs mainstreaming and BFN has effectively drafted recommendations and modification of existing policies;

agricultural policy statements (2007.09.03) to better address the in-situ concerns of securing national food security through sustainable use of agrobiodiversity.The recent revision of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2016-2022 addresses the importance on Biodiversity, food and nutrition, and sets national goals for securing a nation with a food secure status. The revision process included several cross-sectoral workshops where BFN contributed majorly and was identified as one of the major mainstreaming projects in Sri Lanka working towards biodiversity and food-security; under the strategic objective 3; conserve agrobiodiversity; target 8 with budget of 50M rupee for sustainable agriculture practices are promoted and established. The NBSAP document 2016-2022 serves as an integral tool and guide for mainstreaming policies with cross-sectoral collaboration and integration of aspects of Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition into National Programmes.

“Policy should be formulated to solve operational level problems faced by stakeholders of agrobiodiversity”. As a result, a stakeholder workshop was held on June 24, 2016 to gather information on ground level issues related to agrobiodiversity policy formulation. Where a multi-sectoral platform was formulated and gaps and recommendations from each contributing field were discussed. Key champions were identified as major contributors. Experts from respective sectors including: Universities, Education Department, Department of Agriculture, Industrial Training Institutes, NGOs, contributed addressing the problems, barriers and recommendations to better address and support the mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use across sectors for food security, nutrition, health, livelihoods, environmental services & education.