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| ENB on the Side |
Coverage of Selected Side Events at the UN Biodiversity Conference
Issue No. 1 - Tuesday, 6 December 2016
Events convened on Monday, 5 December 2016 |
| Visit our IISD/ENBOTS Coverage for Monday, 5 December 2016, at: http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/cop13/enbots/5dec.html |
| Global Commons: Solutions for a Crowded Planet |
Presented by IUCN, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Stockholm Resilience Centre
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This side event moderated by Inger Andersen, Director-General, IUCN, explored ways of transforming policies and incentives for food production and agricultural sectors towards environmental sustainability. Andersen said the world must find new and better ways to grow our food because the earth is no longer stable enough to allow consistent food production. She underscored that this requires a shift of the global development paradigm to ensure a balance in society, environment and economic systems.
Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson, GEF, said the time has come to challenge the Earth’s survival model, adding that we must consider how to “flip” key economic systems that deteriorate our global commons. She noted that the public sector should create incentives for private sector involvement and address the weak links in agricultural supply chains.
Alexander Müller, Töpfer, Müller, Gaßner – ThinkTank for Sustainability (TMG), said we need to revalue food production to ensure nutritional acceptability, emphasizing that agriculture today is driving poor diets and deteriorating the health of populations.
Pablo Lomeli, Monsanto, said continued work in research and development is required to ensure we can meet food production requirements, which will rise by 70% in 2050. He remarked that the private sector can influence sustainability in supply chains by ensuring research and development, information sharing and collaboration for sustainable agricultural production.
Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Conservation International, stressed institutional arrangements where forests and fisheries under agriculture ministries compromise sustainability since their focus is resource extraction. He stressed the need to address land-use change and to phase out negative incentives, adding that countries are not placing adequate emphasis on Aichi Biodiversity Target 3 (elimination of incentives, including subsidies, harmful to biodiversity).
In ensuing discussions, participants said the global commons debate should address the loss of genetic diversity due to agricultural expansion. Some called for increased public awareness to influence consumer choices. Some also raised questions regarding the threat of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) to genetic biodiversity, and noted the need to encourage sustainable forest management to resolve conflicts between forestry, agriculture and environmental sustainability.
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| Making Connections: InforMEA |
Presented by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Ramsar Convention
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At this event, moderated by Eva Duer, Division of Environmental Law and Conventions (DELC), UNEP, panelists and participants highlighted the importance of the UN information portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), known as InforMEA.
Leo Heileman, UNEP, noted the challenges faced by MEAs and states party to over 50 MEAs, including the volume of information generated under each MEA, the lack of updates on implementation activities, and challenges with national reporting; and underlined that InforMEA helps fulfill Rio Convention Principle 10 (access to information).
Olivier de Munck, Clearing-House Mechanism, CBD, highlighted the importance of InforMEA in monitoring progress towards achieving global milestones such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. He welcomed the collaboration between MEAs contributing to InforMEA, underlining that InforMEA represents “something bigger than us.”
Drawing attention to the value of InforMEA in streamlining national reporting commitments, Maria Rivera, Ramsar Convention, highlighted the value of the website as an opportunity to demonstrate areas for synergies among MEAs, noting that the tool provides a platform for MEAs to better collaborate on areas of common interest.
Calling attention to information fragmentation among MEAs, Anne Teller, Directorate-General (DG) Environment, European Commission (EC), stressed that InforMEA could serve as the platform to address this wide-ranging issue, noting its importance as a “consolidated pillar” that combines all narratives on biodiversity into a coherent message that can be shared outside the biodiversity arena.
Duer then noted that all the information contributed to InforMEA is available for use on other platforms, and drew attention to further work in e-learning courses and linking national focal points from different MEAs at the regional level. She highlighted the various features of the website, including treaty texts, MEA decisions, and national reports submitted.
During discussions, participants considered, inter alia: the value of InforMEA for students; the interaction of InforMEA with non-environmental treaties; how to avoid duplication of national reports submitted for different MEAs; whether InforMEA can assist in compliance obligations; the need to harmonize MEA reporting formats to augment InforMEA’s interoperability; and the need for decentralized reporting systems “talking to each other” to enhance the collective intelligence around MEAs.
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| Mainstreaming Agrobiodiversity in Sustainable Food Systems |
Presented by Bioversity International and the European Commission (EC)
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This side event, moderated by Ann Tutwiler, Director General, Bioversity International, focused on the Agrobiodiversity Index, an initiative to increase public and private investment in sustainable food and agriculture. Four interlinked dimensions were discussed on agrobiodiversity’s impacts on global food systems, including: healthy diets, resilient and productive agroecosystems; dynamic seed systems, and agrobiodiversity conservation.
Tutwiler emphasized the critical role of agrobiodiversity in connecting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in helping farmers adapt to climate change. She noted that the Agrobiodiversity Index will provide policy makers and private investors with easy-to-digest evidence linking agrobiodiversity to global food security, and enable transparent assessment of how countries and companies are contributing to biodiverse agricultural systems.
Coosje Hoogendoorn, Access to Seeds Foundation, noted the “three Cs” of creating an index: consultation, creation and communication; and emphasized the importance of developing stakeholder-specific questions and making information accessible. Meena Kumari, National Biodiversity Authority (India), noted the need for governments and civil society to increase their emphasis on capacity enhancement for agrobiodiversity conservation, and to create an international agrobiodiversity fund to support communities to engage in ex-situ and in-situconservation.
Braulio de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary, CBD, welcomed the Agrobiodiversity Index as a mechanism to measure trends in biodiversity gains or losses at both farm- and landscape levels. He emphasized the importance of simplified methods to measure trends in biodiversity to improving mainstreaming across sectors.
During discussion, participants raised, inter alia: the need for greater detail on how variables within the Index will be measured; the question of how agricultural fiscal policies influence agrobiodiversity; and the need to recognize concentration of corporate power as having a dominant interest in agriculture, and thus the importance of how the Index is framed and by whom.
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| Launch of Policy Brief: The State of Sustainability Initiatives Review 2016 |
Presented by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
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Participants heard about the methodologies and findings of the State of Sustainability Initiatives’ (SSI) policy brief on Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS), which summarizes findings of research conducted jointly by IISD and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat. Panelists highlighted the role of sustainability standards, biotrade and valuation of ecosystem services in supporting conservation.
Sabrina Shaw, IISD, presented on the methodologies and conclusions of the VSS and Biodiversity policy brief, noting that voluntary sustainability standards are “neither the panacea, nor the problem.” Among key conclusions, she noted: the need to ensure voluntary standards are not developed in isolation from the policy making process; and an increased likelihood that standards use CBD-relevant indicators if local stakeholders are consulted.
Lorena Jaramillo, UNCTAD, highlighted the work of the: UNCTAD Biotrade Initiative to assist countries in participating in trade with more value-added, native resources; UN Forum on Sustainability Standards to support developing countries in developing sustainability standards; and the Union for Ethical Biotrade’s Biodiversity Barometer to measure consumer attitudes towards biodiversity.
Karen Alvarenga, IISD, presented on the Serra da Moeda Project in Brazil, which seeks to value ecosystem services in an endangered ecosystem with the aim of ensuring the integration of ecosystem services into decisionmaking. Examples of such services, she noted, include water provision, carbon sinks, and medicinal and ornamental plants.
During discussions, participants considered: the limited potential for biotrade to move beyond a niche market due to high prices; biotrade in Mexico, including of candelilla and aloe vera; perceptions of certification as “the promised land,” as well as a barrier, to trade; local government involvement in ecosystem valuation; and potential for judicial action for loss and damage of biodiversity through results from ecosystem valuation.
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| The Financialization of Nature, Climate and Geoengineering |
Presented by the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF), ETC Group, and Carnegie Council
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This side event considered the financialization of nature, and issues raised by geoengineering, in the context of climate change, and synthetic biology, in the context of biodiversity.
Barbara Unmüßig introduced the book, Inside the Green Economy - Promises and Pitfalls. Stressing that “there is no evidence” that monetizing nature will help us to protect biodiversity and ecosystems, she highlighted the need for political will to address the main drivers of biodiversity loss, such as the agro-industry.
Maureen Santos, HBF, lamented the financialization of nature in Brazil’s new forest code, and called for a rejection of instruments such as The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) and TEEB for Agriculture & Food (TeebAgriFood) that perpetuate the logic of markets.
Lili Fuhr, HBF, said the Paris Agreement’s target to limit climate change to 1.5°C is currently “a double-edged sword” given that it implies the use of negative emissions technologies with serious implications for livelihoods, ecosystems and democracy. She urged Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) parties to send a strong signal to climate change colleagues of the need to consider “real solutions,” instead of “techno-fixes.”
Highlighting the major social, environmental and economic implications of geoengineering, Janos Pasztor, Carnegie Council, said there is a need for appropriate governance frameworks on this issue, and called for public guidance on geoengineering research.
Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group, highlighted that 193 countries “that very seldom come to consensus” had agreed under the CBD to take “a precautionary approach to geoengineering” and underlined the need to “strengthen this moratorium.”
During the discussion, participants considered, inter alia, whether: financialization of nature can ever work; it is possible to measure the true costs of environmental values; and additional geoengineering research is needed. Panelists also highlighted payment for ecosystem services (PES) as altering identities of smallholders and indigenous peoples to providers of environmental services, and that construing climate change as an “abstract global problem” marginalizes the millions of diverse local solutions available.
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| Mainstreaming Biodiversity: Contributions from Science to Policy |
Presented by Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and the National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity of Mexico (CONABIO)
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This side event, moderated by Lily Rodriguez, International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), discussed a declaration on behalf of more than 300 scientists, practitioners and policymakers who participated in the Third Science for Biodiversity Forum, held in Cancun on 1-2, December, 2016.
Hiroyuki Takeda, IUBS, discussed the importance of the Forum, highlighting, in particular, education for biodiversity conservation.
LS Shashidhara, IUBS, spoke on the work of the IUBS Citizen Science Programme in fostering educational initiatives to encourage students and teachers to communicate science with local communities.
Erie Tamale, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat, noted that some of the solutions proposed by scientists have not yet filtered into the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plans (NBSAPs). He emphasized that NBSAPs serve only as a guide and that opportunities exist for science to interject in their implementation.
Rodolfo Dirzo, IAI, stressed that the main objective of the Forum was to discuss contributions of science towards biodiversity mainstreaming efforts of the CBD, under the premise that science should work in partnership with decisionmakers and other sectors of society to ensure the sustainable use of biodiversity, community development, and human well-being.
Paula Mosig Reidl, CONABIO, identified reflections from participants the Forum’s most important recommendations, including: the use of conceptual frameworks to address the relationship between humans and nature through both the biological and social sciences; the need to better understand how, when, and why ecosystem services are co-produced by social and ecological systems; and considerations of equity and ethics.
Anne-Hélène Prieur-Richard, Future Earth, identified three priority activities: educating the scientific community to engage in interdisciplinary science; building a research agenda that is based upon alliances between different actors and perspectives; and building scenarios and models to identify trends which can be integrated into the needs of the Convention.
In the ensuing discussion, participants noted: the paucity of science coming from tropical developing countries; the need to go beyond simply translating science for policy, and to co-produce knowledge with people; and innovative ways for encouraging youth to generate science.
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| Sustainable Ocean Night |
Presented by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat,
and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
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Christophe Lefebvre, French Marine Protected Areas Agency, and Anne McDonald, Sophia University, moderated this event.
Yongseok Kang, Director General, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Republic of Korea, announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Sustainable Oceans Initiative (SOI) between his country and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, welcomed the Initiative, reporting that the importance of oceans particularly for fisheries had been recognized at the High-Level Segment of CBD COP 13.
Elsa Nickel, Director General, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Germany, highlighted that the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 on oceans provides an avenue for progress on oceans conservation.
Mario Aguilar Sanchez, National Commission on Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mexico, underscored the need to engage fishermen to ensure success of the objectives of the Sustainable Ocean Initiative.
Pierre Hele, Minister of Environment and Protection of Nature, Cameroon, said mangrove conservation requires more attention and called for more partnerships for capacity building and experience sharing.
Alain de Comarmond, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Seychelles, said oceans are key for food security and economic prosperity, and essential for the survival of people in Small Islands Developing States (SIDS).
Vivienne Solis, International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, emphasized the need to recognize the contribution and cultural identity of local communities and indigenous peoples in the Initiative, and called for participatory governance models that empower fishermen.
Nana Magomosa, Chair, South African National Biodiversity Institute, discussed the ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs) in the Southern Indian Ocean, emphasizing their value includes supporting fisheries and thus food security in the region.
Gustavo Fonseca, Director of Programs, Global Environment Facility (GEF), noted the GEF’s programme on biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, and highlighted a commitment of over US$40 million for marine protected areas (MPAs).
Eva Muller, Director, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), confirmed the FAO’s commitment to the preservation of marine biodiversity, stressing the need to cooperate and collaborate to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
Lorna Inniss, Coordinator, Caribbean Environment Programme, UN Environment Programme (UNEP), drew attention to UNEP’s work on marine and coastal biodiversity, and reiterated the need to not only conserve marine biodiversity for conservation’s sake, but also for its commercial value.
Sangjin Kim, President, National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea, noted that all the SOI partners are committed to the common goal of sustainable oceans, highlighting the Institute’s partnership with regional seas organizations and other countries.
Lefebvre and McDonald then drew attention to the CBD technical series on the Impacts of Marine Debris focusing on the current status and possible solutions regarding marine debris.
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