COP16: No win for biodiversity
COP16 was another talk shop that did not address the root causes of the world’s biodiversity crisis.
By Leon Louw, owner of WhyAfrica and editor of the WhyAfrica magazine
The COP 16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ended on Saturday morning with no concrete steps to stop biodiversity loss.
According to some delegates that attended this important event COP16, like most conferences and international events, presented another lost opportunity to regulate the impacts of big businesses on nature, not addressing the root causes of the biodiversity crisis.
Suspended due to a lack of quorum
After a session lasting through the night, in which the COP adopted important decisions, the meeting was suspended due to lack of quorum.
Decisions such as that on resource mobilisation and a financial mechanism, key for developing countries who need to have security in terms of funding for implementation, as well as the Planning Monitoring, Report and Review framework, which is essential to ensure a proper implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework, were left unresolved.
Reasons to celebrate
According to Nele Marien, Forests and Biodiversity co-coordinator of Friends of the Earth International, there were reasons to celebrate though, despite the setbacks.
“What we can celebrate is that Indigenous Peoples and local communities will now have a dedicated work body under the Convention. The environmental federation also congratulates the approval of a new work plan by the CBD which will further enhance the role of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant peoples in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity,” said Marien.
However, at the same time, corporations found ways to avoid regulation in policy and practice, while pushing heavily for false solutions, particularly biodiversity offsetting.
Offsetting contributes to destruction
Marien said that biodiversity offsetting was not a solution and in fact contributes to biodiversity destruction.
“Corporations were here pushing very hard for all kinds of false solutions, for example on biodiversity offsetting, which had a lot of traction. They argue that they can keep pushing into new territories, and destroying these ecosystems, promising that they will compensate for this. This is simply impossible, because we don’t have space in the world to compensate for these losses. Biodiversity offsetting is a mechanism that further perpetuates destruction, undermines human rights and damages environmental justice,” said Marien.
Finance for biodiversity, and the mechanisms for its delivery, were discussed intensely but without resolution. The grossly insufficient finance for the Global South is said to be complemented by private funds from corporate-related interests and biodiversity offsetting, as was propagated in many parallel events.
Nevertheless, the real financial debacle – the USD7-trillion of “investment” spent on destructive activities per year, was absent from discussions.
Delegates were also concerned about the negative cycle between the climate and biodiversity crises. Biodiversity is suffering enormously from climate impacts, and yet, climate policy makers continue projecting biodiversity as a source for carbon offsetting.
“The CBD further fails to evaluate all the negative impacts of many climate policies that undermine biodiversity,” they said.
COP16: No win for biodiversity
