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BANGALORE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2012
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AP
What is the CBD?
T
he Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is an international legally binding treaty. It has three main goals: conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity); sustainable use of its components; and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources The CBD was inspired by the world community’s growing commitment to sustainable development. It represents a dramatic step forward in the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. The Convention was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on June 5, 1992 and entered into force on December 29, 1993.
What is the COP?
Commodification of nature The negotiations over the preservation of biodiversity that took off from Rio-92 have turned a full circle with economists taking over from ecologists. The recent Conference of Parties in Hyderabad talked more of “natural capital” and “investments in biodiversity” than “biodiversity conservation”. In the end, the deliberations were all about money. Subir Ghosh reports
W
hen policymakers, diplomats, scientists and civil society representatives from 179 countries met in Rio de Janerio in 1992, the world was genuinely scared. The distant cries that had been sounded by Rachel Carson in her seminal work, Silent Spring, indeed seemed ominous. Everyone agreed that the world was a polluted place, that species were depleting at an alarming pace, that forest cover was dwindling at a rapid rate, and the climate had already started changing for the worse. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) summit, also known as “Earth Summit”, in Rio de Janerio was a landmark event, one that spawned a number of international initiatives. Among them was the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a legally binding agreement. According to the UN, “It represents a dramatic step forward in the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.”
Story so far Negotiations on the CBD progressed at a snail’s pace since the time it was opened for signature on June 5, 1992 in Rio de Janerio and entered into force on December 29, 1993. The CBD very rightly recognised that the conservation of biological diversity was “a common concern of humankind” and an integral part of development. Twenty years down the line, the international community, very broadly speaking, has only inched forward. There are 193 countries which are parties to the convention. Yet, the most powerful country in
the world, the United States, and a couple of other nondescript countries remain non-parties to the CBD. The US has signed the convention, but not ratified it yet. It is not that the conferences of the parties (COPs) have drawn a blank. The first of the stated “achievements” of the convention was the declaration of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which sought to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. The protocol was adopted in January 2000. The Biosafety Protocol, as it is better known, was the first to indicate which way the negotiations were veering. The beating of breasts over species depletion, among others, was left to activists. The Cartagena Protocol looked more at technologies that were to be based on “precautionary principles”. There was more talk of genetically modified organisms. Yet, it took more than four years to get the 50 country ratifications for it to enter into force. The CBD juggernaut trundled on desultorily till 2010, with the international community indecisive on how to go about conserving biodiversity. Nebulous thoughts were finally articulated in the form of a voluminous document: the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing — in short, the Nagoya Protocol, named after city which hosted the tenth COP.
Next: monetisation Years of deliberations were at last beginning to show some results. But by now, certain things were clear as crystal. First, to arrest the decline in global biodiversity developing nations would need phenomenal amounts of money, which they didn’t have. Second, as a corollary to the first, the Shylocks of the world would soon demand their pound of flesh. The monetisation of environmental degradation had already been in place by this time — with the UN Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC) talking of trading of emissions. The analogy was soon to be carried forward to biodiversity. The players would be the same, and so would be the contentious issue of funding. The UN Year of the Forests in 2011 paved the way for this commodification to take shape. The first was the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) celebrating the occasion with the misleading tagline “Forests: Nature at your service”. The damage was done. The world was told that forests were essentially a commodity, and the natural resource could be harnessed in monetary terms, come hell or high water. While environmental degradation indeed needed to be quantified, the wrong message seemed to have gone out
Delegates at the recent COP11 in Hyderabad. The conference ran from October 8 to 19
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the governing body of the Convention, and advances implementation of the Convention through the decisions it takes at its periodic meetings. To date the Conference of the Parties has held 11 ordinary meetings, and one extraordinary meeting (the latter was held in two parts). From 1994 to 1996, the COP held its ordinary meetings annually. Since then these meetings have been held somewhat less frequently and, following a change in the rules of procedure in 2000, will now be held every two years. To date the COP has taken a total of 299 procedural and substantive decisions.
Thematic programmes
Thomas Elmqvist (left) of the Stockholm Resilience Centre releasing a UN assessment report at the COP11 in Hyderabad. Seated alongside is Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD executive secretary
to the global community. The World Conservation Congress of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) in 2011 took this a step further. It talked of the “valuation” of “ecosystem services” and “natural capital”. Even the annual meet of the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) that year degenerated into an agenda-setting event for the World Bank. Not only had the discourse changed, it was also clear who was setting the course of events, and how. The keywords of the early 1990s no more made common parlance and new key players began to hold sway. In the interregnum, a crucial document was released at the COP10 — ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’, (TEEB). This study had been launched by Germany and the European Commission in 2007 to look into the economics of biodiversity loss. The second phase of the TEEB study was hosted by the UNEP, which was gung-ho about its Green Economy Initiative. It was revealed to the international community in Nagoya.
COPping it The COP11 in Hyderabad was more about stock-taking and thrashing out resource mobilisation issues. With the Nagoya COP setting out specific targets to be attained over a 10-year period, there would have been precious little to quantify how far the world had proceeded over two years in arresting the precipitous decline in global biodiversity. The parties worked out a ‘Hyderabad Roadmap’, doubling the budget that developed countries need to raise for biodiversity conservation by 2015. About $12 billion would be mopped up to help developing nations reach their biodiversity target. Making the amorphous Nagoya Protocol more tangible was no easy task. In the end, there was more talk of “natural capital” and “investments in biodiversity” than “biodiversity conservation”. A ‘Hyderabad Declaration’ was to have been announced in the afternoon of the last day of the meet (October 19). The press conference was rescheduled, and parties wrangled through the night. A statement came out of the CBD Secretariat only the following day, with a clause saying that the full list of all decisions would be available on the Convention website. However, even at the time this edition went to the press, the website carried a curt, cryptic notification “Please note that the list of COP 11 decisions is still under preparation.” At the end of the day, all that was achieved was a price tag: $12 billion.
The COP has established seven thematic programmes of work which correspond to some of the major biomes on the planet. Each programme establishes a vision for, and basic principles to guide future work. They also set out key issues for consideration, identify potential outputs, and suggest a timetable and means for achieving these: agricultural biodiversity; dry and sub-humid lands biodiversity; forest biodiversity; inland waters biodiversity; island biodiversity; marine and coastal biodiversity; mountain biodiversity.
TEEB The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study is an international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity. Its objective is to highlight the growing cost of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions. TEEB aims to assess, communicate and mainstream the urgency of actions through its five deliverables — science and economic foundations, policy costs and costs of inaction; policy opportunities for national and international policy-makers; decision support for local administrators; business risks, opportunities and metrics; citizen and consumer ownership.
The Cartagena Protocol... The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an agreement which aims to ensure the safe handling, transport and use of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on biological diversity, also taking into account risks to human health. Adopted in January 2000, it was entered into force in September 2003.
The Nagoya Protocol... The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement which aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding, thereby contributing to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components. It was adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its tenth meeting on October 29, 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.
Aichi Biodiversity Targets STRATE GIC GOAL STRATEGIC GOAL A Address underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across govt, society TARGET 1: By 2020, at the latest, people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably.
TARGET 2: By 2020, at the latest, biodiversity values have been integrated into national and local development and poverty reduction strategies and planning processes and are being incorporated into national accounting, as appropriate, and reporting systems.
TARGET 3: By 2020, at the latest, incentives, including subsidies, harmful to biodiversity are eliminated, phased out or reformed in order to minimize or avoid negative impacts, and positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are developed and applied, consistent and in harmony with the Convention and other relevant international obligations, taking into account national socio economic conditions.
TARGET 4: By 2020, at the latest, governments, business and stakeholders at all levels have taken steps to achieve or have implemented plans for sustainable production and consumption and have kept the impacts of use of natural resources well within safe ecological limits.
STRATE GIC GOAL STRATEGIC GOAL B Reduce direct pressures on biodiversity, promote sustainable use TARGET 5: By 2020, the rate of loss of all natural habitats, including forests, is at least halved and where feasible brought close to zero, and degradation and fragmentation is significantly reduced.
TARGET 6: By 2020 all fish and invertebrate stocks and aquatic plants are managed and harvested sustainably, legally and applying ecosystem based approaches, so that overfishing is avoided, recovery plans and measures are in place for all depleted species, fisheries have no significant adverse impacts on threatened species and vulnerable ecosystems and the impacts of fisheries on stocks, species and ecosystems are within safe ecological limits.
TARGET 7: By 2020 areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry are
managed sustainably, ensuring conservation of biodiversity.
TARGET 8: By 2020, pollution, including from excess nutrients, has been brought to levels that are not detrimental to ecosystem function and biodiversity. TARGET 9: By 2020, invasive alien species and pathways are identified and prioritized, priority species are controlled or eradicated, and measures are in place to manage pathways to prevent their introduction and establishment.
TARGET 10: By 2015, the multiple anthropogenic pressures on coral reefs, and other vulnerable ecosystems impacted by climate change or ocean acidification are minimized, so as to maintain their integrity and functioning. STRATE GIC GOAL STRATEGIC GOAL C To improve status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity TARGET 11: By 2020, at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscapes and seascapes.
TARGET 12: By 2020 the extinction of known threatened species has been prevented and their conservation status, particularly of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained. TARGET 13: By 2020, the genetic diversity of cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and of wild relatives, including other socioeconomically as well as culturally valuable species, is maintained, and strategies have been developed and implemented for minimizing genetic erosion and safeguarding their genetic diversity. STRATE GIC GOAL STRATEGIC GOAL D Enhance benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services TARGET 14: By 2020, ecosystems that provide essential services, including those related to water, and contribute to health, livelihoods and well-being, are restored
and safeguarded, taking into account the needs of women, indigenous and local communities, and the poor and vulnerable.
TARGET 15: By 2020, ecosystem resilience and the contribution of biodiversity to carbon stocks has been enhanced, through conservation and restoration, including restoration of at least 15 per cent of degraded ecosystems, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation and to combating desertification. TARGET 16: By 2015, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization is in force and operational, consistent with national legislation. STRATE GIC GOAL STRATEGIC GOAL E Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building TARGET 17: By 2015 each Party has developed, adopted as a policy instrument, and commenced implementing an effective, participatory and updated national biodiversity strategy and action plan. TARGET 18: By 2020, the traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and their customary use of biological resources, are respected, subject to national legislation and relevant international obligations, and fully integrated and reflected in the implementation of the Convention with the full and effective participation of indigenous and local communities, at all relevant levels. TARGET 19: By 2020, knowledge, the science base and technologies relating to biodiversity, its values, functioning, status and trends, and the consequences of its loss, are improved, widely shared and transferred, and applied. TARGET 20: By 2020, at the latest, the mobilization of financial resources for effectively implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 from all sources, and in accordance with the consolidated and agreed process in the Strategy for Resource Mobilization, should increase substantially from the current levels. This target will be subject to changes contingent to resource needs assessments to be developed and reported by parties.