From October 21st to November 1st, 2024, Colombia will be hosting the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the city of Cali, Colombia. COP 16 will be the first Biodiversity COP since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP 15 in December 2022 in Montreal, Canada. Crucially, it was here that a number of key goals and targets were set out aimed at reducing and reversing the damage already done to biodiversity.
Matias Ramirez and Oscar Romero from TIPC’s Latin American and Caribbean hub have been invited to be part of the COP’s ‘Blue Zone’ of delegates. On October 22, Matias will speak at the event ‘Building bridges to implement the new Biodiversity Plan’. Other speakers will include Raquel Soto, Vice Minister of Strategic Development of Natural Resources of the Ministry of Environment of Peru, who will comment on the main challenges to implement the New National Strategy for Biological Diversity of Peru and the lessons learned from the participatory process of updating the strategy. Matias will talk about the need to forge pathways of transformative change to stop and hopefully reverse deforestation in the Amazon area. He will build on the collaborative research undertaken between the Latin America Hub of the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium, the latter based at the University of Sussex, and the Wyss Academy for Nature in the Peruvian Amazon where they have been working on a transformative approach to break the lock-in to deforestation practices that have been prevalent the Amazon for the past decades.
Objectives of COP 16
At COP 16, governments will be tasked with reviewing the state of implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Parties to the Convention are expected to show the alignment of their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) with the Framework. COP 16 will further develop the monitoring framework and advance resource mobilisation for the Global Biodiversity Framework. Among other tasks, COP 16 is also due to finalise and operationalise the multilateral mechanism on the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources.
The Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity will be expected to accelerate the momentum of such three actions:
- Translate the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework into resolute national action
- Mobilise and bolster the means of implementation of the 23 targets set for 2030
- Accelerate the progress on access and sharing of benefits coming from the utilisation of genetic resources
According to CBD’s report, Colombia stands among the world’s most biodiverse nations, containing about 10% of the planet’s biodiversity. However, since 1978, Latin America has experienced an estimated 94% reduction in monitored wildlife populations, making it the region with the steepest decline in populations of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, and amphibians worldwide. This context creates a unique opportunity for Colombia to host the biodiversity COP, blending the aim to advance efforts in biodiversity conservation and restoration with the pressing need to address these critical issues in the region.