The executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has urged countries to accelerate efforts towards the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) targets, as implementation talks begin in Colombia shortly before COP16.
Astrid Schomaker spoke on Wednesday during the opening ceremony of the fifth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI-5), the UN body tasked with reviewing countries’ progress on the GBF within their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).
The three-day meeting, scheduled over Oct. 16-18, will focus on the GBF implementation mechanism and the resource mobilisation strategy, paving the way for the first NBSAPs assessment at COP16.
While countries are making progress compared to their commitments against the Aichi biodiversity targets for 2011-20, efforts are still not enough to meet the 2030 targets, Schomaker said.
As of Wednesday, 29 parties have submitted their NBSAPs out of 195 GFB signatories, and 91 have submitted their national targets.
“Based on the interactions we’ve had with delegates and parties, we know that many more submissions are on their way,” Schomaker said.
“We are encouraged by the progress we have already seen, but we are also clear that we must scale up and we must accelerate.”
Notably, many of the plans published to date do not go far enough, particularly on the topics of whole-government participation, human rights, and tracking, according to a recent WWF study.
Achelander Reddy, chair of the Convention’s SBI, said during the opening that the tasks parties face are “huge and complex”.
“All the differences among the parties make this exercise very challenging,” he said.
“This requires the participation of the whole society, including Indigenous Peoples, local communities, government organisations, and other stakeholders.”
During the SBI-4 in Nairobi, Kenya earlier this year, negotiators made limited progress on key topics on the agenda, leaving much work for this year’s UN biodiversity summit.
The former CBD executive secretary David Cooper defined the meeting as a “tough one“, adding that “there have been certainly some frustrations”.
In Nairobi, countries largely diverged on the resource mobilisation strategy for closing the biodiversity finance gap, as negotiations did not resolve the spat over the role of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), established after COP15 and administered by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The GBFF is set to be a big stumbling block at this year’s UN biodiversity summit, with a large group of countries, including Brazil, South Africa, and Kenya, repeatedly advocating for the establishment of a separate vehicle under the authority of the COP.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
*** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter ***
