#cop16

The United Nations COP16 biodiversity talks in Cali, Colombia, were suspended on Saturday after rich countries blocked a proposal to set up a new fund to help poorer nations restore their depleted natural environments. The decision, taken by a group of developed countries including the European Union, Japan, and Canada, left African and Latin American nations furious and prompted some to refuse to engage in talks on other matters.

While COP29 is the more well-known international conference on climate change, COP16.2 concluded in February and focused on stopping biodiversity loss.

After stalled negotiations at the COP16.1 conference last year, there was significant progress at COP16.2--including countries pledging to contribute $200 billion per year to protect biodiversity and ecosystems.

Moving the UN from Prim Words to Urgent Deeds

Our world is enduring the sixth mass extinction in its history: the Anthropocene Extinction. Species are disappearing at a thousand times the natural rate.

Unlike the great dyings of past epochs, this one is driven not by natural planetary catastrophes, but by human activity.

My role as a member of Canada’s state delegation at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is to wield Nature Canada’s policy expertise, to press the treaty from prim words to urgent deeds.

CALI, Colombia (AP) — After two weeks of negotiations, delegates on Saturday agreed at the United Nations conference on biodiversity to establish a subsidiary body that will include Indigenous peoples in future decisions on nature conservation, an important development that builds on a growing movement to recognize the role of Indigenous peoples in protecting land and helping combat climate change.

The delegates also agreed to oblige major corporations to share the financial benefits of research when using natural genetic resources.

Indigenous delegations erupted into cheers and tears after the historic decision to create the subsidiary body was announced. It recognizes and protects the traditional knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples and local communities for the benefit of global and national biodiversity management, said Sushil Raj, Executive Director of the Rights and Communities Global Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“It strengthens representation, coordination, inclusive decision making, and creates a space for dialogue with parties to the COP,” Raj told The Associated Press, referring to the formal name of the gathering, Conference of Parties.

Negotiators had struggled to find common ground on some key issues in the final week but came to a consensus after talks went late into Friday.

The COP16 summit, hosted in Cali, Colombia, was a follow-up to the historic 2022 accord in Montreal, which included 23 measures to save Earth’s plant and animal life, including putting 30 percent of the planet and 30 percent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.

A measure to recognize the importance of the role of people of African descent in the protection of nature was also adopted in Cali.

The Indigenous body will be formed by two co-chairs elected by COP: one nominated by U.N. parties of the regional group, and the other nominated by representatives of Indigenous peoples and local communities, the AP saw in the final document.

At least one of the co-chairs will be selected from a developing country, taking into account gender balance, the document said.

Key priorities include legal security for Indigenous territories and direct financing mechanisms for Amazonian Indigenous peoples

Indigenous organizations from nine Amazonian countries have formed an alliance in Cali, Colombia, representing 511 groups dedicated to defending the Amazon rainforest, traditional peoples, biodiversity, and the global climate. Their primary demand is to be recognized as climate authorities, a notion reflected in their coalition’s name, the Indigenous Amazon G9.

“We want the COPs to acknowledge the demarcation and recognition of indigenous lands as climate and biodiversity policies,” said Angela Amanakwa Kaxuyana, a leader from the Kahyana people in northern Pará, bordering Suriname.

“Another point is for indigenous peoples to be recognized as biodiversity and climate authorities,” Ms. Kaxuyana told Valor. “We are often mentioned as guardians of the forest and essential for climate balance, but not as authorities.”

The alliance was announced over the weekend at COP16, the biodiversity conference running until November 1. “It’s an agenda for collaboration among nine Amazon basin countries aimed at international influence leading up to COP30 in Belém,” she added.

Excerpt from this story from The Guardian:

Governments risk another decade of failure on biodiversity loss, due to the slow implementation of an international agreement to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, experts have warned.

Less than two years ago, the world reached a historic agreement at the Cop15 summit in Montreal to stop the human-caused destruction of life on our planet. The deal included targets to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade (30x30), reform $500bn (then £410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and begin restoring 30% of the planet’s degraded ecosystems.

But as country representatives dig into their second week of negotiations at Cop16 in Cali, Colombia – their first meeting since Montreal – alarm is growing at the lack of concrete progress on any of the major targets they agreed upon. An increasing number of indicators show that governments are not on track. They still need to protect an area of land equivalent to the combined size of Brazil and Australia, and an expanse of sea larger than the Indian Ocean to meet the headline 30x30 target, according to a new UN report.

Weak progress on funding for nature and almost no progress on subsidy reform have also frustrated observers. At the time of publication, 158 countries are yet to submit formal plans on how they are going to meet the targets, according to Carbon Brief, missing their deadline this month ahead of the biodiversity summit in Cali, where governments are not likely to set a new deadline.

The world has never met a target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems. Amid growing scientific warnings about the state of life on Earth, there has been a major push to make sure this decade is different, and that governments comply with targets designed to prevent wildlife extinctions, such as cuts to pesticides use and pollution.

Leading figures in conservation and science have raised concerns about the progress governments are making towards the targets in Cali. Martin Harper, CEO of Birdlife International, said meaningful action on commitments was vital.

Proteger la biodiversidad no es solo cuidar la naturaleza; es invertir en nuestro futuro. Con acciones globales y locales, aún podemos revertir la crisis climática y ambiental.