CBD – Convention on Biological Diversity
CBD – Convention on Biological Diversity
12/01/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 12/01/2021 08:34
Issue 2 of the Action Agenda Newsletter on Biodiversity Commitments for non-state actors is now available.
Action Agenda Newsletter on Biodiversity Commitments: Issue 2, 2021
Reversing Biodiversity Loss and Promoting Positive Gains to 2030
The Sharm El-Sheikh to Kunming Action Agenda for Nature and People is an initiative spearheaded by the governments of China and Egypt, with support of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The purpose is to build engagement with non-state actors to inform, inspire and showcase voluntary commitments for biodiversity. The Action Agenda works with non-state actors to raise awareness on the urgency, ambition and concrete actions, across different sectors, that can reduce the drivers of biodiversity loss and enable the needed shifts toward nature positive outcomes, aligned to the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
The Action Agenda showcases actions to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity by sub-national and non-state actors (e.g. local and sub-national authorities and youth, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, business, academia as well as indigenous peoples and local communities). The structure of the Action Agenda encompasses all types of biodiversity benefits and engages actors at all levels and scales to complement a whole-of-society approach that catalyzes upward cycles of ambition to stimulate and instigate transformational change within key sectors, in society and the economy.
As of 10 November 2021, the Action Agenda features 293 commitments. More commitments will be added before the end of the year as a result of announcements from part one of the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China and additional pledges announced before and after the Conference. The commitments on the Action Agenda are championing a collective global response for biodiversity in the lead up to COP-15, where Parties will set the course to 2030 with the adoption of a new global biodiversity framework.
The post-2020 global biodiversity framework will guide actions worldwide to 2030 to conserve and restore our natural ecosystems, to which our economies and societies depend. Through partnership engagement, outreach, and mainstreaming, the Action Agenda will continue to encourage greater commitments, building further momentum for the implementation of the post-2020 framework and proving that sub-national and non-state actors can contribute to the policy process with meaningful actions and active engagement.
As non-state actors continue to send a strong signal of commitment to work collectively, and alongside countries, to support the necessary transitions to bend the curve of biodiversity loss and put biodiversity on the path to recovery by 2030, the Action Agenda will serve as the mechanism to recognize commitments, build engagement and champion non-state actions in the post-2020 process.
Table of Contents
Statements:
- Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
Biodiversity Commitments:
Organization: CropLife International
Scale: Global
Action Category: Biosafety and Food systems and Health and Stewardship
Main contribution to the draft targets under the global biodiversity framework: Draft Target 17 - Establish, strengthen capacity for, and implement measures in all countries to prevent, manage or control potential adverse impacts of biotechnology on biodiversity and human health, reducing the risk of these impacts.
Organization: WildAid Marine
Scale: North America/Asia
Action Category: Conservation and Sustainable Use of Species, Freshwater, Coastal, and Ocean Ecosystems, Stewardship
Main contribution to the draft targets under the global biodiversity framework: Draft Target 1- Ensure that all land and sea areas globally are under integrated biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning addressing land- and sea-use change, retaining existing intact and wilderness areas.
Relevance to other draft targets of the framework: Draft Target 4 - Ensure active management actions to enable the recovery and conservation of species and the genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species, including through ex situ conservation, and effectively manage human-wildlife interactions to avoid or reduce human-wildlife conflict; Draft Target 3 - Ensure that at least 30 per cent globally of land areas and of sea areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and its contributions to people, 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.
| WildAid, an American non-governmental organization working with Asian and Western celebrities and business leaders, commits: 1) to start a campaign to motivate Asian consumers to adopt sustainable diets, low emission mobility, and sustainable consumption habits; 2) to work on advocacy to reduce the demand for wildlife products (e.g. ivory, rhino horn, pangolin meat and scales, tiger parts, and sea turtle carapace); 3) to encourage 250 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by 2025, which includes six steps tailored for local partners to stop illegal fishing, enforce regulations, allow wildlife recovery, and encourage positive economic opportunities for communities. The commitments include actions to support the design of strategies that address five key elements to discourage illegal activities and ensure meaningful protection for MPAs (e.g. through surveillance and enforcement, policies, funding, training and community engagement). |
Organization: Votorantim S.A.
Scale: Latin America
Action Category: Conservation and Restoration of Land Ecosystems and Sustainable Use of Species
Main contribution to the draft targets under the global biodiversity framework: Draft Target 4- Ensure active management actions to enable the recovery and conservation of species and the genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species, including through ex situ conservation, and effectively manage human-wildlife interactions to avoid or reduce human-wildlife conflict.
Organization: Bioversity International
Scale: Africa/ Europe
Action Category: Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Food Systems and Health and Climate Change
Main contribution to the draft targets under the global biodiversity framework: Draft Target 10 -Ensure all areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry are managed sustainably, in particular through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, increasing the productivity and resilience of these production systems.
Organization: Union for Ethical BioTrade
Scale: Global
Action Category: Stewardship, Sustainable and Consumption and Production and Food Systems and Health
Contribution to the draft targets under the global biodiversity framework: Draft Target 14- Fully integrate biodiversity values into policies, regulations, planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies, accounts, and assessments of environmental impacts at all levels of government and across all sectors of the economy, ensuring that all activities and financial flows are aligned with biodiversity values.
Relevance to other draft targets of the framework: Draft Target 15 - All businesses (public and private, large, medium and small) assess and report on their dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, from local to global, and progressively reduce negative impacts, by at least half and increase positive impacts, reducing biodiversity-related risks to businesses and moving towards the full sustainability of extraction and production practices, sourcing and supply chains, and use and disposal.
| Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT), a non-profit association, coordinated 56 companies from different sectors and industries, iincluding Guerlain Paris, Christian Dior Parfums, Yves Rocher and Martin Bauer Group, to commit to cultivate, collect and procure ingredients from biodiversity sustainably. The pledge sets time-bound targets and takes measures towards gradually improving company policies and practices concerning biodiversity - from on-the-ground action in farms and wild plant collection sites, to processing, research and development, manufacturing and procurement practices. A highlight of its commitment is the monitoring plan developed by UEBT to keep track of the commitment and provide progress reports. |
Organization: Bioparc Genève
Scale: Europe and Africa
Action Category: Stewardship, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Species
Contribution to the draft targets under the global biodiversity framework: Draft Target 4 - Ensure active management actions to enable the recovery and conservation of species and the genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species, including through ex situ conservation, and effectively manage human-wildlife interactions to avoid or reduce human-wildlife conflict.
| Bioparc Genève, an ecological zoo in Geneva, has two pledges in line with the conservation of local species based on the biodiversity strategy of Geneva by 2030 and the nexus between human civilization, culture and wilderness. Commitments include a study to analyze 1,692 hedgehogs, mapping their location in Europe, impacts, and identifying areas where more hedgehogs need to be rescued. The second pledge, in collaboration with zoological institutions and museums in Europe, addresses species conservation efforts to genetically identify, through morphological diagnoses, differences between two types of African crocodiles. This includes establishing a scientific base for the creation of a European Study book and an update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) identification guide. |
Organization: Tealeaves
Scale: North America
Action Category: Sustainable Consumption and Production and Stewardship
Contribution to the draft targets under the global biodiversity framework: Draft Target 15 - All businesses (public and private, large, medium and small) assess and report on their dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, from local to global, and progressively reduce negative impacts, by at least half and increase positive impacts, reducing biodiversity-related risks to businesses and moving towards the full sustainability of extraction and production practices, sourcing and supply chains, and use and disposal.
Relevance to other draft targets of the framework: Draft Target 7 - Reduce pollution from all sources to levels that are not harmful to biodiversity and ecosystem functions and human health, including by reducing nutrients lost to the environment by at least half, and pesticides by at least two thirds and eliminating the discharge of plastic waste; Draft Target 16 =-Ensure that people are encouraged and enabled to make responsible choices and have access to relevant information and alternatives, taking into account cultural preferences, to reduce by at least half the waste and, where relevant the overconsumption, of food and other materials.
Organization: Center for Biodiversity and Indigenous Knowledge
Scale: Asia
Action Category: Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation and Conservation and Restoration of Land Ecosystems
Main contribution to the draft targets under the global biodiversity framework: Draft Target 20 - Ensure that relevant knowledge, including the traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities with their free, prior, and informed consent, guides decision-making for the effective management of biodiversity, enabling monitoring, and by promoting awareness, education and research.
Relevance to other draft targets of the framework: Draft Target 8 - Minimize the impact of climate change on biodiversity, contribute to mitigation and adaptation through ecosystem-based approaches, contributing at least 10 GtCO2e per year to global mitigation efforts, and ensure that all mitigation and adaptation efforts avoid negative impacts on biodiversity.
Organization: The Global Fund for Coral Reefs
Scale: Global
Action Category: Ecosystem Approach and Restoration, Marine and Coastal Biodiversity
Contribution to the Global Biodiversity Framework target: Draft Target 19 - Increase financial resources from all sources including new, additional and effective international financial flows to developing countries, leveraging private finance, and increasing domestic resource mobilization, taking into account national biodiversity finance planning, and strengthen capacity-building and technology transfer and scientific cooperation, to meet the needs for implementation, commensurate with the ambition of the goals and targets of the framework.
New flyers on commitments:
Useful Information
The useful information section has information on recent updates related to the Action Agenda.
New infographics explaining the 11 Action Agenda categories
The Action Agenda Network (GITHUB) with open source components/widgets to make available the Action Agenda in any platform
Instructional video to insert open source components
Statistics
The statistics section has information on the recent number of commitments and other relevant statistics based on the commitment categories.
293 commitments
(As of 10 November 2021)
Statistics on stakeholders and regions
(Some commitments address multiple stakeholders, categories and regions)
(As of the end of September 2021)
Additional analysis on regional coverage, themes addressed and tools
Events
The events section has information on recent and upcoming events related to the Action Agenda.
Recent Events
|
NGO Action Forum convened ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference mobilized greater ambition around the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and hundreds of commitments on biodiversity, 27 - 28 September 2021. The NGO Action Forum issued a joint non-state actor call to action and mobilized hundreds of commitments to help advance biodiversity goals and objectives, including the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, with 10 pledges mobilizing $390 million invested into biodiversity conservation; and providing nine key suggestions to the draft framework.
Biodiversity Newsletter Special Issue of CBD COP-15, by the Global Environment Institute of China, is available at www.cbd.int/action-agenda/EN_Special Issue of COP15-1.pdf |
Upcoming Events
- Subsidiary Body on Implementation Side Event, January 2022 (Tentative)
- Twenty-fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, 12 - 28 January 2022, Geneva, Switzerland
- Third meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation, 12 - 28 January 2022, Geneva, Switzerland
- Third meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, 12 - 28 January 2022, Geneva, Switzerland
- UNEA 5 Side Event, March 2022 (Tentative)
- UN Biodiversity Conference (COP-15, COP-MOP 10 and COP-MOP4), part two, 25 Apr - 8 May 2022, Action Day and CEPA Fair event for biosafety (tentative)
Other news
- During UNFCCC COP 26, a World Leaders Summit was organized at the highest level resulting in concrete and coordinated actions and plans to tackle climate change, including biodiversity loss.
- During UNFCCC COP 26, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), pledged to mainstream nature across their policies and to significantly boost nature finance for their member countries.
Editors:
Ulrika Nilsson
Catalina Santamaria
Nywani Albert-Howe
Sunil Thapa
Yixuan Wang
Contact information: [email protected]
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Disclaimer: The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the two secretariats, nor does citing of trade names or commercial processes constitute endorsement.