Did You Know About COP 15?
UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15).
Since the first conference held in 1992, United Nations and its partners organize a biennial event named UN Biodiversity Conference to discuss and address global biodiversity issues. The goal of the conference is to gather experts from different fields of science, policy, business, and civil society. Together they address the threats to global biodiversity, identify solutions and strategies for conserving biodiversity. They also develop international commitments and actions to protect and sustainably manage the world’s biological resources.
UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15)
The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) took place in Montreal Canada between 7–19 December 2022. In this event, representatives from 188 nations’ government convened to devise a plan of action for the next few years till 2030 to prevent and reverse the degradation of nature. The following points were discussed,
1. Recognizing the importance of conserving and restoring biodiversity for achieving global goals.
2. Strengthening the global framework for biodiversity protection and conservation.
3. Taking action to protect and conserve threatened species, habitats, and ecosystems.
4. Addressing the pressures of unsustainable invasive species and illegal wildlife trade.
5. Reducing the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and unsustainable agriculture and fishing.
6. Promoting sustainable livelihoods and the equitable sharing of benefits. 7. Enhancing the use of traditional knowledge and integrated approaches to land and resource management.
8. Establishing public-private partnerships to support biodiversity conservation.
9. Strengthening the scientific basis for conservation and management decisions.
10. Increasing access to and the effective use of financial resources for biodiversity conservation.
Chaired by China and hosted by Canada the 15th UN Biodiversity conference (COP 15), culminated in the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) on the final day of negotiations.
The GBF aims to address biodiversity loss, restore ecosystems and protect indigenous rights.
The GBF envisages the following vision and mission,
Vision 2050
The vision of the framework is a world of living in harmony with nature where: “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.
Mission 2030
The mission of the framework for the period up to 2030, towards the 2050 vision is: “To take urgent action across society to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetics resources, to put biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030 for the benefit of planet and people
The four overarching goals proposed to achieve the Vision and Mission can be summarized as follows.
- To improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity. To reduce extinction rate and risk of all species by ten fold by2050.
- To take action to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and its components for the benefit of present and future generations.
- To promote the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.
- To mobilize resources and strengthen capacity to implement the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, especially to developing countries, least developed countries and small islands.
The conference insists the need for a “whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach”, to achieve these goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Let’s play our part to protect nature.
