Stockholm (NordSIP) – The first UN-sponsored biodiversity event since the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was formally adopted in December 2022 will begin next week on October 21 in Cali, Colombia. COP16, the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), will run until 1 November under the theme of “Peace with Nature.”
Commenting on the event theme, COP16 President Susana Muhamad Gonzalez said: ““The added value of holding COP16 in Colombia lies in our vision of ‘Peace with Nature’ and in recognising that the real struggle of the 21st century is for life. If we succeed in transforming our relationship with nature, as well as our production and consumption practices, and get collective actions to promote life instead of destroying it, we will be addressing the most important challenges of our time.”
Although the concept of steering human behaviour patterns away from relentless consumption and towards greater harmony with nature is laudable, the main aim of COP16 will be to translate the ambitions of the GBF into concrete actions. This will also be an occasion for countries to report on the progress of their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). The purpose of the latter is to lay out each nation’s plans for improving environmental stability for natural ecosystems and their biodiversity, restoring degraded ecosystems and maintaining equilibrium among biological communities, establishing a framework for access to genetic resources and equitable sharing of benefits arising from biodiversity use and ecosystem services. The NBSAPs are also designed to support the improvement of policy, and the implementation of legal and institutional frameworks for the effective management and conservation of national biodiversity.
Putting a price on nature
Much of the negotiating at COP16 is expected to focus on finance. The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) was ratified by 186 nations at COP15 and has so far made $211 million available for relevant projects. This amount includes pledges from Canada, the UK, Germany, Spain, and Japan, but is deemed far short of the roughly $1 billion that is needed annually. Moreover, there is ongoing controversy over the governance of the GBFF, with some countries unhappy with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) set up to administer the fund in the run-up to 2030. Some countries have strongly advocated for a fund managed by the United Nations’ COP organisation, but there remain significant financial and logistical obstacles for that alternative to be put in place. The GBFF is distributed on a project basis, but many would prefer a mechanism based on the scale of biodiversity protection in each country. Irrespective of the funding arrangements, a crucial goal of COP16 will be to mobilise private sector capital, without which the nature funding gap is unlikely to be filled.
Also on the COP16 agenda will be efforts to establish a more equitable distribution of the vast revenues derived from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI), which relates to the DNA sequences from flora and fauna used in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, cosmetics, and other industries. This will be aimed at developing nations and indigenous peoples in particular. As well as generating more nature-related investment from the public and private sectors, a priority for the COP16 delegates will be to address the harmful subsidies enjoyed by industrial scale agriculture and fisheries companies that cause or exacerbate deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the depletion of fish stocks.
NordSIP will report on developments during COP16 as well as the final outcome of the two-week long conference.
