Welcome to Capturing COP17!
Hello and welcome to The Macaw View’s Biodiversity COP17 round-up!
Over the next 11 days, we will be monitoring news, progress and related topics on the implementation of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties—CBD COP17 for short.
The COP is hosted in Yerevan, Armenia from 19 – 30 October. Here are some top things to look out for this month:
· Progress on national biodiversity commitments since the GBF’s adoption
· Supporting biodiversity action and knowledge worldwide
· Establishing mechanisms for biodiversity financing
· Improving biodiversity data and insights
· Implementing the 23 2030 biodiversity targets
The GBF was adopted at COP15 with the goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss through national action and results-based strategies. Biodiversity is an enormous concept, encompassing every form of life on the planet, so having common international languages and forums like the GBF/COP is really important for keeping us all on the same page.
COP17 is especially important because countries will be reviewing their progress on the GBF for the first time since it was adopted. We have had commitments from 113 countries who submitted their national biodiversity strategies and actions plans (NBSAPs). Now we will see what words were put into action and what needs to happen next.
Governments, civil society, scientists, Indigenous People, youth, businesses and other groups will be in Yerevan for the rest of month to advance global biodiversity goals. While the nature crisis has not received as much attention as the (related but distinct) climate crisis, conservation is no less important than emissions reductions. Ecosystem health determines the availability and price of food and water and air quality. Failing to protect that risks ecosystem collapse, interrupted supply chains and livelihoods, and displacement driving migration and conflict.
These economic and security threats have been receiving more appreciation. The UK Government now regards global biodiversity loss as a national security threat, for example. Efforts to finance or regulate biodiversity loss are also being developed. We see this over in Australia, whose voluntary Nature Repair Market issues biodiversity certificates to encourage investment in projects that protect nature.
But there is still a money problem with biodiversity. Many investors, businesses and governments recognise biodiversity’s importance to a healthy economy, but how that translates into finance is still an unanswered question.
How do we define, measure and monetise nature conservation? What about verifying and regulating biodiversity assets? Where does the money come from, where does it go?
Then of course there’s the question of international cooperation. We have seen how politically contentious and often disappointing global climate action has been over the past decade. What can global biodiversity efforts learn from this, and how can nations effectively implement these targets with all the other high-priority concerns?
Every day you will receive briefings on how COP17 addresses these and more considerations—supporting you, your community and your organisation in taking effective action to protect our most fundamental asset: life itself.
-Kayla Rahaman
The Macaw View, Founder