This publication documents presentations and discussions from an International Consultation held in Chennai, India in 2005 with 25 countries represented. It includes summaries and full texts of addresses by dignitaries, and scientific presentations covering Biodiversity and Livelihoods and Biodiversity and Policies. The principal outcome was the adoption of the ‘Chennai Platform for Action’, a 10-point strategy to assist national governments and international agencies achieve the UN Millenium Development Goals, with the conclusion that this can be done through the promotion of local, community-centred systems delivering improved food security and health, using diverse food crops, vegetables, fruits and medicinal plants.

An important question, not specifically addressed in the action plan, is ‘why local farmers and people stop growing and using diverse traditional crops and plants’? Finding answers to this question would clearly help to reverse the declining trend in local food production and agricultural biodiversity. A number of the presentations did address this question, giving value to this publication. For example, Oniang'O et al. highlighted changes in life-style and urbanization decreasing the use of African leafy vegetables, while Tahir and Ahmad found that consumer preferences were changing for the worse. Identifying underlying causes is one thing, finding answers is another, although two presentations were impressive from this point of view; Bhattacharjee et al. outlined a model for the improvement of home garden systems in Lao, and Griffith et al. identified a framework for linking farmers to markets, making valuable contributions to the debate.