Judicial Colloqium on Biodiversity

The eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity took place from 8-19 October, 2012 in Hyderabad, India. The high-level Ministerial Segment was held from 16-19 October and a number of other events and meetings took place parallel to COP11 including the Communications, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) Fair, the Rio Conventions Pavilion, the Cities’ Biodiversity Summit, among others.

Approximately 6000 delegates representing Parties, other governments, NGOs, international organizations, UN agencies, indigenous and local community representatives, academia and the private sector were in attendance. COP11 adopted 33 decisions on a range of issues in the agenda. (Advanced unedited versions are available at: http://www.cbd.int/cop/cop-11/doc/2012-10-24-advanced-unedited-cop-11-decisions-en.pdf)

After the adoption of the “Nagoya Package” back at the very successful COP10 two years ago, COP11 marked a move in the Convention from negotiation to implementation. In many ways, this COP was also an opportunity to correct and fine-tune issues that are found ineffective, insufficient or problematic in the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Targets. Expectations of any big “breakthrough” at COP11 were not high and this was considered as a transitional COP by many.

Issues that were intensively discussed at COP11 include:1) setting targets for the Resource Mobilization Strategy and discussion around the resources needed to fill the financial resources gap for biodiversity conservation especially in developing countries; 2) the work around marine protected areas (MPAs) and conservation of marine areas beyond national jurisdiction and in particular the description of ecologically and biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs); and 3) the way that the Convention deals with so called “new and emerging issues” like geo-engineering and synthetic biology. Undoubtedly, the most salient issue at this COP nonetheless was the development and agreement of targets to assess financial flows from developed to developing countries in order to implement and advance with the Strategic Plan and the Aichi Targets in the context of current financial constraints and budget cuts. In fact, negotiations around this issue were held from the beginning of COP until the very end and caused the delay until 3 a.m. of Saturday 20 October of the closure of the meeting.

In IUCN’s view the Strategic Plan represents an unparalleled opportunity to galvanise all parts of society to work to tackle thecrisis of ongoing biodiversity loss, on which the life on this planet depends. IUCN (its Members, Commission and Secretariat) played a significant role in the development and adoption of the Strategic Plan. Following its adoption, IUCN mobilized its networks to promote follow-up and implementation of the Plan and Targets and has made it a priority to encourage Parties to the CBD and others to urgently implement the necessary action to achieve the Aichi Targets.IUCN’s Programme 2013-2016 has fully integrated the Strategic Plan and Targets and since the Nagoya COP IUCN nominated a number of “Champions” to follow-up to each of the twenty Targets in a concerted and coordinated way.

For the summary report and daily coverage of COP11 please consult the Earth Negotiations Bulletin at: http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/cop11/