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The importance of biodiversity for our own safety

Habitat loss and overexploitation, driven by our rapid population growth and unsustainable consumption patterns, are the primary causes of biodiversity loss which is now happening up to ten thousand times faster than for millions of years before.

Egypt initiative to integrate Rio conventions is imperative: Environment Minister

Egypt's Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad has highlighted the importance of the initiative set out by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to achieve integration between the three Rio conventions.

Results of the Survey on the Trial Phase of an Open-Ended Forum on Review of Implementation held on 16-17 September 2020

Reference: SCBD/IMS/JEC/MC/89183 (2020-094)
To: CBD National Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points, indigenous peoples and local communities and relevant organizations, cc: Cartagena Protocol Focal Points, ABS Focal Points

‘Implementation should begin immediately’: Elizabeth Mrema on a global deal for biodiversity

On the face of it, global efforts to prevent the extinction of one million species are not progressing well. Out of 20 targets agreed by governments in 2010, none were met, and this year’s much hyped “super year for nature” has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with all global negotiations stalled.

Trial Phase of an Open-ended Forum for Review of Implementation (to be held online on 16 and 17 September 2020)

Reference: SCBD/IMS/JMF/JC/88541 (2020-059)
To: CBD National Focal Points cc: ABS Focal Points, Cartagena Protocol Focal Points, Resource Mobilization Focal Points

Two meetings of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) permanent subsidiary bodies originally scheduled for May 2020 and then rescheduled for August/September 2020 will now take place in August 2020.

Revised dates and venue announced for two critical UN Biodiversity Convention meetings

2 April 2020 – Two meetings of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) permanent subsidiary bodies originally scheduled for May 2020 and then rescheduled for August/September 2020 will now take place in August 2020.

Dates and venue: Twenty-fourth Meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24), 17 to 22 August 2020, and Third Meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 3), 24 to 29 August 2020, Montreal, Canada

Reference: SCBD/OES/EM/DC/88792 (2020-033)
To: CBD National Focal Points, Cartagena Protocol Focal Points, ABS Focal Points, indigenous peoples and local communities and relevant organizations

Peer review of documents for the third meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation

Reference: SCBD/IMS/JMF/KNM/88699 (2020-019)
To: CBD National Focal Points, Cartagena Protocol Focal Points, ABS Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points, indigenous peoples and local communities and relevant organizations

Five takeaways from the UN’s proposals to protect biodiversity

Dubbed by some “the other COP”, UN negotiations over biodiversity targets and a new international framework for nature restoration and conservation have not had the same media or political profile as those on climate change.

Oceans, biodiversity, deforestation: what's on the climate agenda for 2020?

World leaders and business chiefs meeting in Davos this week will be confronted for the first time with an agenda on which the climate and ecological crises take top billing.

Twenty-fourth Meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24), 18 to 23 May 2020 and Third Meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 3), 25 to 30 May 2020, Montreal, Canada

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/JMP/VA/JB/88614 (2020-008)
To: CBD National Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points, relevant organizations, indigenous peoples and local communities, cc: Cartagena Protocol Focal Points and ABS Focal Points

To save biodiversity, MEPs call for binding targets at global and EU level

MEPs want the upcoming global biodiversity conference COP 15 to agree on legally binding targets, as was the case for the Paris agreement on climate change. Parliament adopted its position in view of the 2020 UN biodiversity conference (COP 15), in Kunming (China) in October by show of hands.

Safeguarding biodiversity is not just an environmentalist issue

In less than one year, delegates from around the world will gather in Kunming, China, to complete a new global agreement for protecting and conserving the world’s natural systems. To succeed, they must bring together not just environmentalists, but also officials with the clout to effect change ...

UN draft plan sets 2030 target to avert Earth's sixth mass extinction

Almost a third of the world’s oceans and land should be protected by the end of the decade to stop and reverse biodiversity decline that risks the survival of humanity, according to a draft Paris-style UN agreement on nature.

UN Convention on Biodiversity Proposes Protection of at Least 30 Percent of the Planet by 2030

Today, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity released its ‘zero draft’ text proposal for a post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Featured in the text is a target to protect at least 30% of the planet — land and sea — by 2030.

Preparations for the trial phase of an Open-ended Forum for review of implementation to be held during the third meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation, 27 May 2020 - Montreal, Canada

Reference: SCBD/IMS/JMF/NS/88541 (2020-002)
To: CBD National Focal Points, cc: ABS Focal Points, Cartagena Protocol Focal Points

Follow-up invitation to participate in and/or contribute to the piloting and further development of a methodology for the voluntary peer review of national biodiversity strategies and action plans

Reference: SCBD/IMS/JMF/NVW/86292 (2019-117)
To: CBD National Focal Points

Changing behaviour towards nature to keep biodiversity

As far as I've remember, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon emphasised the importance of giving priority to considering biodiversity issues when making decisions in all sectors. Biodiversity must be the basis for establishing other goals, not an idea that comes up after other goals have bee ...

Biodiversity in 2020: the biggest threats and opportunities

What are the biggest emerging opportunities and threats the coming year holds for efforts to conserve biodiversity? Nearly two dozen scientists, conservation professionals and future scanners recently came together to answer that question as part of an annual “horizon scan” led by Cambridge Univ ...

JICA Supports Biodiversity Conservation and Human-Wildlife Conflict Resolution Workshop in Sikkim

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported one and a half-day workshop on "Challenges for Biodiversity Conservation and Human-Wildlife Conflicts – Identifying the problems and possible solutions” held in Sikkim. The states with JICA-supported forestry projects, MoEFCC officials, ...

FAO publishes voluntary guidelines to assure resilience to crop loss

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations recently published new guidelines aimed at assuring crop diversity and farmers’ resilience to plant genetic resource loss. Called the Voluntary Guidelines for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Farmers’ Varieties/Landraces, t ...

Toward a Global Biodiversity Accord

The 2015 Paris climate agreement was made possible when countries realized it was in their own interest to commit to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. But a similar understanding of the need for stronger conservation policies has yet to take hold, putting the world's ecosystems increasing ...

ACB hails leaders’ commitment to environment, climate action in ASEAN Summit

The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) commended the renewed commitment of the leaders of the ASEAN Member States (AMS) to environmental protection and climate action during the 35th ASEAN Summit and related summits held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 3 November 2019.

Tackling an emerging biodiversity threat

We must applaud the government for finally allocating a handsome sum in funding for biodiversity and conservation efforts next year. The RM48 million in funding is timely, thanks to our big mammal friends like tigers and tapirs that made the news headlines due to the dire state of their natural ...

Can tokenization and other fintech initiatives help save the planet’s biodiversity?

Sustainable Digital Finance Alliance (SDFA) – a non-profit organisation with a high-level Advisory Board co-chaired by United Nations Environment Programme UNEP and Ant Financial Services Group – has launched its “Fintech for Biodiversity Challenge” to identify fintech companies across the globe ...

Experts call for efforts to protect plant species and habitats

Efforts should be stepped up to support the strategic goal of global plant conservation, said experts at an international forum that ended Wednesda

Anne McCall: Be honest about the transformative change needed to save biodiversity

Scotland has just been given the clearest and most objective view of how its remarkable natural heritage and ecosystems are faring in the modern world.

Stakeholders plan strategies to tackle biodiversity, ecosystem threats

To strengthen the resilience of African food systems, communities and natures’ contributions to the economy, stakeholders have harped on the need for more action plans and strategies in addressing tremendous pressure on the nations’ biodiversity.

Our diets must change to halt nature loss, says UN biodiversity chief

Next year is a crunch moment for efforts to stem humanity’s destruction of nature. So far, efforts are failing miserably, with a landmark UN report this year finding our activities have put a million species at risk of extinction.

EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020

Conscious of the need to avert global biodiversity loss, on May 3, 2011, the European Commission adopted a new strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity, known as EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 (EUBS).

Africa's global deal for nature

Africa is experiencing a dramatic loss of biodiversity. By the end of this century, climate change alone could cause the loss of over half of African bird and mammal species, and a significant loss of plant species.

China Spearheads Talks On Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Protection

Delegates from 200 nations are scheduled to meet in the capital of Yunnan province in southwest China to discuss a new framework that might halt biodiversity loss and protect the ecosystem. It is believed that the outcome of the talks is crucial in restoring the health of the planet.

Taking the lead in Asean biodiversity conservation

How will you make sure that everyone—from policy-makers and business leaders to their employees, and even school children—are aware of and practice biodiversity conservation in their daily activities? This is the challenging mission of Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, international wildlife expert a ...

Beijing biodiversity meet to debate '30 percent by 2030' target

Ahead of a crucial global meet on biodiversity next year, a group of 13 international conservation organizations urged governments to set an ambitious target to protect the world's natural sites and wildlife population.

KENYA: UNDP launches $4 million project for biodiversity conservation

Kenya has a high biodiversity, with national parks that are among the best known and most visited by tourists on the African continent. For example, the Masai Mara National Park, known for its beautiful wildebeest population, or Lake Nakuru National Park, with its myriad of water birds. These na ...

Central Africa: EU Grants €20 Million for Biodiversity Protection

Biodiversity protection programmes in Central Africa will receive a €20 million grant from the European Union. Three grant contracts have been signed in this regard.

LIFE programme: Council agrees its position on the EU's environmental policy flagship programme

The EU is updating its main funding instrument for nature, biodiversity and climate action projects. The Council today agreed its position (partial general approach) on a regulation to extend the LIFE programme beyond 2020. LIFE is the EU's flagship programme dedicated to funding environmental, ...

Cameroon launches second phase of biodiversity conservation project

The second phase of the Integrated and Transborder Conservation of Biodiversity in the Basins of the Republic of Cameroon basins, TRIDOM II. The project was launched on Tuesday December 19 in Sangmelima by the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife in partnership with the United Nations Development P ...

Anticipating hastened global action in integrating conservation in dev't sectors

Following the agreement of 196 countries during the UN Biodiversity Conference to ensure the achievement of global biodiversity targets through actions at the global, regional, national, and sub-national levels, ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim ex ...

African Union: The Great Great Wall Initiative

The Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative aims to implement actions to end or reverse land degradation, loss of biodiversity in African drylands and to ensure that ecosystems are resilient to climate change, continue to provide essential services and contribute to human well-being and the eliminatio ...

France offers lessons on plastic bags

It is good to see that an appalling future awaiting the planet is being recognised (Huge risk if global warming exceeds 1.5C, warns landmark UN report, 8 October) and brought to light by the IPCC. Is there now any hope that the Convention on Biological Diversity can be jolted into comparable act ...

New strategy to tackle 'crisis' state of New Zealand's biodiversity

With New Zealand's indigenous biodiversity in a state of "crisis", a new national strategy is pertinent and timely, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage says.

Scientists urge world leaders to ramp up targets to protect global biodiversity

With the global population set to balloon to 10 billion people by 2050, scientists are calling for mankind to set aside sufficient amounts of ecosystems on land and at sea to ensure the survival of the many other species.

Mainstream biodiversity to national development agenda- Stakeholders

Stakeholders at a two-day national workshop have underscored the need for duty-bearers to mainstream biodiversity into decision making at the national and local levels because of its significant economic benefits for livelihoods and poverty reduction.

The Cancun Declaration: 190 countries committed to preserve the environment

Among the commitments of 190 countries part of the Cancun Declaration, two of the most important are: the concern for the loss of biodiversity, and the sustainable use of resources in a harmonious way with the environment understood as responsible fishing. These and other initiatives were approv ...

Safeguarding biodiversity as the window narrows

The window to halt the dramatic decline of life on earth is incredibly narrow but the failure to act will jeopardise humanity’s survival too, a top UN official has warned. “The curve of biodiversity loss by 2050 under the business-as-usual scenario looks very dramatic,” remarked Dr Christiana Pa ...

Scientists call for a Paris-style agreement to save life on Earth

Conservation scientists believe our current mass extinction crisis requires a far more ambitious agreement, in the style of the Paris Climate Accord. And they argue that the bill shouldn’t be handed just to nation states, but corporations too.

Biodiversity is the 'infrastructure that supports all life'

Dr Cristiana Pașca Palmer, UN assistant secretary general and executive secretary of the convention on biological diversity, discusses Half Earth, a future biodiversity agreement and where to find the money to save life on Earth

GEF eyes on implementation of proposal projects

The 6th Global Environment Facility (GEF-6) Assembly introduced innovations in terms of integrated approaches for cities, commodity supply chains and food security in Africa, said CEO Naoko Ishii at the 54th GEF Council Meeting – the last council meeting of GEF-6 – at Đà Nẵng’s Ariyana Conventio ...