Beyond Decision X/21, business interests are explicitly referred to in both the Convention’s text such as
article 10 and
16), as well as in many COP decisions adopted over the years. Many of the Convention's Programmes of Work are also of direct relevance to business. These include
Forestry,
Marine and Coastal Biodiversity,
Climate Change,
Economics, Trade and Incentive Measures and
Innovative Financial Mechanisms and Resource Mobilization and
Agriculture .
Several CBD decisions of particular interest to the Business Community are described below:
2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets
COP 10 adopted the
20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets to be achieved by year 2020. These targets, organized under five strategic goals, address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, reducing the pressures on biodiversity, safeguarding biodiversity at all levels, enhancing the benefits provided by biodiversity, and providing capacity-building. Among the targets, COP 10 agreed to:
- At least halve and where feasible bring close to zero the rate of loss of natural habitats including forests
- Protect 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas and 10 per cent of marine and coastal areas
- Restore at least 15 per cent of degraded areas
- Make special efforts to reduce the pressures faced by coral reefs.
Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization was also adopted at COP 10. This historic agreement creates a framework that balances access to genetic resources, on the basis of prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms, with the fair and equitable sharing of benefits. The Protocol also proposes the creation of a global multilateral mechanism that will operate in transboundary areas or situations where prior informed consent cannot be obtained.
The Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
Prior to COP 10, the fifth meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety adopted the Nagoya –
Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The objective of the Supplementary Protocol is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity by providing international rules and procedures on liability and redress for damage resulting from living modified organisms (LMOs). It specifies the measures that need to be taken in response to damage resulting from LMOs that find their origin in a transboundary movement. The Supplementary Protocol plays an important role as an instrument for preventing damage on the one hand and as a further confidence-building measure for the environmentally-sound development and application of modern biotechnology on the other.
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