The third meeting of the Open Ended Working Group -- 23 August – 3 September 2021

The Open-Ended Working Group will be held virtually from 23 August to 3 September 2021. This process is expected to lead to the adoption of a post-2020 global biodiversity framework at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada, from 7 to 19 December 2022. 

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s Bureau of the Conference of the Parties in consultation with the Government of Colombia, as host of the WG2020-3, decided to convene the meeting virtually. This is an exceptional measure due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Participation in WG2020-3 

Plenary sessions will be limited to three hours each day. Details about the virtual meeting's procedures, will be made available in the coming weeks, with the overall meeting schedule provided in due course. The Bureau of the Conference of the Parties is in consultation with participants and stakeholders, to ensure an inclusive and transparent process. 

Furthermore, the Government of Colombia is planning to convene a high-level event in the margins of the meeting. Further information on the organization and modalities of this important high-level event will be made available, shortly.  

Publicly accessible video content from the meetings will be streamed and made available on our YouTube channel.  

Anticipated Discussions

Governments and stakeholders completed the first round of negotiations on the zero draft of a global framework in February 2020, at the second meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group.  The Working Group’s contact groups produced detailed suggestions on all the aspects of the draft framework. At that time, delegates organised the results of their discussions according to the following themes:

• Goals of the framework, including the relationship between goals for 2030 and 2050
• Ways to reduce threats to biodiversity, including new targets for protection, sustainable use and the control of invasive alien species, among others
• Parties and observers welcomed the inclusion of an action target in the zero-draft framework that addresses climate change as a major direct driver of biodiversity loss and the interrelationship between biodiversity and climate change
• Meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit sharing
• Tools and solutions for mainstreaming biodiversity across government, society and the economy. 

The Co-chairs of the Working Group and the Secretariat released a first draft of the global biodiversity framework in July 2021. The framework “builds on the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020” and aims to bring about a “transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled.”

More information:

Open-Ended Working Group 3: Documents

Highlights from Open-Ended Working Group 2

Preparations for the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework