Ministers 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 close the global biodiversity implementation gap.

In the joint statement, ministers who are members of the Alliance of Champions for Food (ACF) Systems Transformation, point to ways to turn targets into action, based on national experience of investing in sustainable food systems and protecting the environment.

ACF launched at COP28 in Dubai, with member countries working to improve their national food systems in ways that become attractive blueprints for others to follow, showcasing national leadership, facilitating learning, disseminating knowledge and accelerating innovation.

Alongside the statement, ACF is also launching a new biodiversity progress snapshot demonstrating how countries are already delivering measurable results for climate, nature and food security, including:

Viet Nam: A low-emission rice programme now covering 354,000 hectares has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 3-4 tonnes of carbon per hectare per crop, while increasing rice yields by 12 per cent, reducing irrigation water use by 20 per cent and cutting production input costs by 40 per cent.
Brazil: Deforestation rates are falling to their lowest level in more than a decade. More than 50 million hectares of land are under low-carbon agricultural technologies, while 3.4 million hectares of native vegetation were under restoration by the end of 2025.
Rwanda: More than 1.1 million hectares of hillside farmland are protected by terracing, helping tackle soil erosion and land degradation, while restoring productive landscapes.
Norway: Food waste fell by 24 per cent between 2015 and 2024, demonstrating progress towards halving food waste by 2030.

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