About us

Biodiversity is at risk of rapid global declines and extinctions. These risks extend to biodiversity in our food systems or agrobiodiversity, the domesticated and undomesticated plants, animals and microorganisms that contribute to food and agriculture, including those that provide pollination, nutrient cycling, pest control and other ecological functions supporting production systems. The overdependence on a handful of species, varieties and breeds and the disappearance of pollinators and other organisms that support food and agriculture threaten the sustainability of our food system and affect human and environmental health. 'To manage it, we need to measure it' The diversity lighthouse aims to shine a light on and connect the multiple dimensions and functions of biodiversity in our food systems. The Lighthouse brings together data, visualizations, and insights of multiple indicators of biodiversity in our food systems.

Why this portal?

The Diversity Lighthouse aims to:

• Communicate the multifunctional role of biodiversity for food systems transformation
• Collect and make available and accessible the multiple ‘diversity for food systems’ datasets that are being developed across various scales, for various purposes
• Visualize data and data insights in interactive ways to support research and decision-making
• Connect and bring together different tailored applications of these datasets co-developed with a diversity of partners
• Inspire and bring together options for actions, policies, investments building on agrobiodiversity data insights

For whom ?

The Diversity Lighthouse hopes to support and interact with:

• researchers, triggering interest to use these data for other analyses and to help fill in critical data gaps
• educators, triggering to use these insights / figures / interactive interfaces into their learning materials
• practitioners, providing an interactive interface to gain location-specific evidence-based insights to consider into programs
• public sector actors and investors, providing an entry point to evidence on the multifunctional role of diversity in food systems transformation
• private-sector actors and investors, providing an entry point and overview on biodiversity in food systems data and applications

How?

The Diversity Lighthouse builds upon research insights, data, and publications and brings those together in various spatial and interactive way. We very much welcome collaborations to further evolve, improve and expand the portal.