The Biodiversity Convention at a crossroads: leading the way or losing ground?

The 12^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) stands at the mid-point of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which includes the Aichi targets. It will therefore provide an opportunity for the critical review of the various action plans, which will be particularly valuable if based on an assessment of their ability to substantially tackle underlying causes of biodiversity loss.

Highlights:

• The decisions to be negotiated at the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are mainly expected to confirm and clarify ongoing efforts, in particular, with the view to enhancing implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. However, confronted with the speed of the erosion of Earth’s biological diversity, the pace of these negotiations does not seem adequate to reverse such erosion and its sector-specific economic causes.
• In 2015, in an international agenda focused on the fight against climate change and on development in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), actors mobilized around the CBD should not only ensure that this focus is not at the expense of biodiversity, but also position biodiversity as an essential element of the solution to these two major issues. These two negotiations on development patterns (climate change, SDGs) will indeed provide CBD actors a unique opportunity to negotiate with the different economic sectors, scarcely present within the CBD.
• The first meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-sharing (COP MOP 1) will also take place. Its entry into force, scheduled for 12th October 2014, is an important achievement in terms of international cooperation for biodiversity. However, negotiations on the modalities of its implementation, the compliance mechanism and the role and status of indigenous peoples and local communities remain politically very sensitive issues.