CBD COP16 in Colombia: Focus on the future of biodiversity

Commentary

The 16th UN conference on biodiversity in Colombia faces the challenge of delivering results for the conservation of biological diversity. In addition to financing strategies, measures to protect biodiversity and ecosystems are urgently needed.

Rede von Susana Muhamad, kolumbianische Umweltministerin, bei der Eröffnung der 16. UN-Biodiversitätskonferenz (COP16) in Cali, Kolumbien, vor einer großen Leinwand mit Konferenzdetails sowie den Flaggen Kolumbiens und der UN.

“Peace with Nature” is the theme of the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which began on Monday, October 21, in Cali, Colombia. More than 18,000 participants, including delegates, representatives of NGOs, the private sector and the press, will attend some 1,000 events over the next two weeks to agree on measures to protect nature and restore degraded natural spaces. UN Secretary-General António Guterres will be joined by ten heads of state, including Lula da Silva of Brazil and Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, as well as 100 environment ministers and more than 140 UN delegations.

Under the presidency of Gustavo Petro and Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, the host country, Colombia, is highlighting its international leadership role in global biodiversity conservation and has announced that it will support ambitious targets for updating national biodiversity action plans. As one of the most biodiverse countries in the world – with particularly valuable ecosystems such as the Amazon, the Andes, the Pacific and the Caribbean coast – Colombia is the ideal setting for this conference. In recent years, however, Colombia has lost 23 million hectares of ecosystems, much of it to deforestation and fires caused by extreme climate-related drought. 

COP16 is the highest decision-making body of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to which all 196 UN nations are signatories. The goals of the Convention are the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the fair and equitable sharing of genetic resources. Since its inception in 1992, the CBD has reinforced the importance of protecting biodiversity worldwide and established binding obligations for signatory countries. At the historic COP15 in Montreal in 2022, the Parties agreed to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Its ambitious goals include protecting 30 percent of the world’s land and oceans and restoring 30 percent of degraded ecosystems by 2030. In 2022, it was agreed to provide $20 billion annually to so-called developing countries by 2025. Two years after Montreal, the international community has fallen far short of this goal. 

Back on the agenda: Financing biodiversity targets

In December 2023, the Petro government announced that Colombia would host COP16 in Cali after the original host, Turkey, withdrew due to the devastating earthquake that struck the southeast of the country. Global solutions and urgently needed financial support from states are now being discussed in Cali. The highly organized civil society expects the conference to produce concrete progress in the implementation of the biodiversity goals. With the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s office in Bogotá, which is also organizing numerous events at the summit, an alliance of representatives of Colombian civil society has drafted a declaration of community-based alternatives for cooling and preserving the planet, which will be presented to decision-makers at the COP. A central concern of this declaration is to create a holistic view of biodiversity and climate protection and to merge the respective agendas. It also aims to recognize gender equality and the role of women in biodiversity conservation and sustainable food systems. Finally, it calls for the involvement of local, indigenous, peasant and Afro-Colombian communities in decisions that affect their autonomy.

Demand: Specific measures with the participation of local communities 

In addition, the alliance of Colombian civil society organizations has developed proposals to update the national biodiversity action plan, which will be discussed at COP16. This roadmap will ensure the implementation of the commitments made under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at COP15. It aims to define concrete measures to protect biodiversity, reduce species loss, restore degraded ecosystems and promote the sustainable use of natural resources. As part of the Colombian Biodiversity Action Plan 2016-2030, the alliance aims to redefine the protection of biological and cultural diversity to mitigate the crises of civilization, including the climate crisis.

International civil society is using COP16 to increase pressure, particularly on richer countries, to develop and implement new, ambitious conservation targets. In fact, in the run-up to the conference, only 25 countries had fulfilled their commitments to submit revised national biodiversity plans. As with the climate agreement, it is up to each country to decide how it wants to contribute to the global goals. For Germany, COP16 is part of the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and efforts to achieve a “Paris moment for nature” – a breakthrough comparable to the Paris climate agreement. The German government sees the conference as an opportunity to focus on global biodiversity protection and create synergies between environmental and climate policy. The German government has pledged 1.5 billion euros annually for global conservation starting in 2025. 

In Cali, the global community faces enormous challenges to halt the global loss of biodiversity, which also threatens economic systems worldwide, and to accelerate the decarbonization of industries. This will require effective multilateralism that regains credibility through decisive action. The stakes are also high for Colombia: The country must demonstrate that it can live up to its leadership role in international conservation and drive decisions with global implications. The goal is to protect nature and, ultimately, the future of humanity. To this end, the voices of civil society, indigenous peoples and local communities are more important than ever. 


More information on COP16 is available on the website of our office in Bogota (spanish):