COP16 Delivers Indigenous Peoples, Digital Succession, But Fails Financially – Global Issues
CALI, Columbia, Nov 03 (IPS) – The curtains fell on the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Biodiversity (COP16) on Sunday without officially closing. In a voice message, David Ainsworth, Director of Communications of the UNCBD, confirmed that the COP was suspended due to the lack of quorum at the meeting and will be resumed at a later date. However, before the suspension, the organizations were able to take a historic decision to give indigenous peoples (IPS) and local communities (LCs) the opportunity to influence the global agenda to stop the destruction of biodiversity.
IPLC Water Moment
On Saturday night, after hours of last-minute negotiations in several closed meetings between the parties, COP negotiators agreed to create a permanent sub-organization under Article 8j of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) that will allow indigenous and local communities. (IPLCs) direct participation in the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. As IPS previously reported, article 8j has been the subject of intense debate at the COP, with thousands of indigenous activists calling for it while also facing opposition from several countries, including Indonesia and Russia.
However, after several rounds of meetings inspired by COP16 host Colombia, the warring countries finally reached an agreement and the proposal to establish a subsidiary body of CBP in the IPLCs was finally accepted unanimously. Also, for the first time in the history of the CBD COP, indigenous Africans of Colombian origin were recognized for their role in biodiversity conservation, paving the way for them to participate in all processes related to IPLCs under the COP and the KMGBF.
“This is an important moment in the history of international environmental agreements,” said Jennifer Corpuz, leader of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB), an organization that brings together indigenous peoples and local communities from 7 regions around the world organized around the Convention on Biological Diversity. Biodiversity (CBD) linking indigenous strategies for biodiversity.
Corpuz, who led the IIFB discussions on 8J throughout the COP, further stated that the establishment of a Permanent Subsidiary Body in Article 8(j) will not only allow for stronger relationships between governments, Indigenous Peoples and local communities and donors but and will provide a high-level platform to further highlight the contributions of IPs and LCs to planetary protection and share learnings.
Currently, IPLC-related discussions are held under an open-ended Working Group. The decisions of this group are not binding and there is no order as to how often this group must meet. However, after the creation of a sub-branch, this working group is no longer needed and can be disbanded. Corpuz indicated that Colombia is likely to host the first meeting of the sub-society, which is expected to be about a year from now—around October or November 2025.
Hopes Raised by New DSI Fund
Agreement on a new, multilateral framework on Digital Sequence Information (DSI) was also reached at COP16 on Saturday.
The framework—to be known as CaliFund—will channel funding and address how the benefits derived from the use of genetic data, especially for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agricultural companies, should be shared with countries, indigenous communities and stakeholders who provide these resources. . The text adopted this time includes strong language such as corporations it should pay rather than be it is encouraged to be and specifies that 50 percent of the money coming into the DSI fund will go directly to Indigenous people and local communities.
However, no decisions were made about the exact percentage of profits the companies would have to pay and who would be the other eligible participants for the fund.
National Action Plans for Diversity
In a pre-COP interview with IPS, Astrid Schomaker, Secretary General of the UNCBD, said that all parties are expected to submit an updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) for COP16. However, on the last day of the COP, only 44 countries had submitted their NBSAPs. A long list of countries that did not ship include the UK and Brazil.
At the launch of their NBSAP, India’s Environment Minister, Kirti Vardhan Singh, said that India is ready to help others, especially neighboring countries, to develop and deliver their own NBSAPs.
“We believe in the principle of neighbor first and the policy of ‘one world, one family’ and we are always ready to share our knowledge with the neighbours; however, the request must come from their side,” Singh told IPS.
Gender: A Free Tool for Measuring Progress
Gender mainstreaming – the focus of Article 23 of the KMGBF was not on the main agenda of COP16, and the parties did not have the authority to discuss their implementation plans.
However, Women4Biodiversity—a group representing all non-governmental organizations working on biodiversity and women—announced on October 31 that they have coordinated with UNEP-WCMC a guideline for countries to adopt and use to achieve the 23rd goal of the KMGBF.
Elaborating further, Mrinalini Rai, head of Women4Biodiversity, said the index also includes a questionnaire with multiple options. The questions are organized under the three expected outcomes of the Gender Action Plan and the words correspond closely to the indicative actions of the Gender Action Plan. Each response falls under a category that represents a level of progress. The responses are then aggregated and summarized as a quantitative measure (index) to provide a measure of progress over time.
All countries that have signed the KMGBF must report on the progress of its implementation by 2026, when the Biodiversity Global Stocktake will be carried out. The index can especially help the agencies to prepare that report as it is developed to track and report on their actions in ensuring the implementation of the KMGB’s gender approach.
“We took a long time and invested a lot of effort in developing this methodology. We also had extensive discussions with several countries and 19 of them tested the index. Then they shared their feedback, and we revised the index based on that. So, it is a tried and tested tool that can be used by any country, said Rai.
Finance and Monitoring and Standardized COP
Although new financial contributions were pledged to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund during the COP, USD 51.7 million by private donors and USD 163 million by 12 donor countries, the goal of raising USD 20 billion per year remained a distant goal. always.
On Saturday night, there was a clear divide between developing countries and developed countries, especially the European Union. Developing countries want the COP to adopt a plan to meet USD 20 billion by 2025 and hold donors to account. They argue that this is important to them, as most countries in the global south cannot start running their environmental systems without money. However, this was strongly opposed by EU delegates who did not want the official document to include any language related to accountability.
The division between the north and the south came to the fore when African countries complained that their concerns and voices were not kept aside in the important issue of the monitoring framework.
Speaking on behalf of the African Union, a delegate from Namibia alleged that the COP failed to consult with African parties in making recommendations for the implementation of the KMGBF: it showed our willingness to engage in dialogue and achieve convergence; however, Africa was not informed and was not invited to the discussion about the consensus presented at the CG but did not take into account the position of the African group and its 55 countries.”
Since both parties have refused to leave their positions and other parties are also speaking without following the UN process, the COP president’s office has finally announced that the conference is suspended for the time being.
Melissa Wright, of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which previously pledged USD 20 million to save marine biodiversity, said the barrier was “very concerning.”
“It is very worrying that no agreement has been reached on important issues including finance. The clock is ticking.”
However, Susana Muhamad, the president of COP16, called the conference a success.
“COP16 was a transformative event,” Muhamad said while acknowledging that disagreements over the financial strategy and monitoring framework remained a challenge for the future. “
This leaves some challenges for the Conference, and it is time to start addressing them, but the discussion there has always been very divided and continues to be so,” he said.
COP17: Armenia Wins
On October 31, delegates voted for Armenia to host the next COP on biodiversity (COP17). Armenia and Azerbaijan were the candidates and during the voting, Armenia received 65 out of 123 votes cast by secret ballot, while 58 were in favor of Azerbaijan, Muhamad said. IPS UN Bureau Report
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
