As the world celebrates the International Year of Biodiversity, R4D Review interviews local conservationists to get their take on how to stem the loss of biodiversity.

Conserving the genetic resources of important African food crops is a huge responsibility, but Dominique Dumet enjoys the challenges and demands at work. See what she plans to do during this International Year of Biodiversity.

Robert Asiedu, IITA’s R4D director for West Africa and program director for agrobiodiversity and root and tuber systems programs, has been with IITA for 20 years now. Discover what inspires him at work.

The Deputy Undersecretary for Science at the Smithsonian Institution, Scott Miller, discusses the importance of biodiversity conservation and what the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) is doing in this area.

IITA is part of a system-wide network that protects agrobiodiversity for genetic improvement and food security using traditional and new molecular tools.

IITA maintains the biggest reference collection of insects in the CGIAR. Understand why such a collection holds a place of importance in agricultural research and development.

Nonplant taxa are global public goods that play a huge role in maintaining sustainable farming systems for food and agriculture.

The IITA headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria sits on about 1,000 hectares of protected agricultural and forest land. Read about the rich variety of life that can be found in this small pocket of Africa.

The debate continues: food or biodiversity conservation? Scientist Emeritus Peter Neuenschwander stresses that natural resources management offers the intellectual platform to integrate the different disciplines in a sustainable manner. He suggests ways in which the CGIAR and IITA can help meet the twin goals of conserving biodiversity while feeding the human population.