Three Major Decisions to Conserve Biodiversity
11/08/2010
All 193 Parties attending the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) in Nagoya, Japan ended their two week conference with the adoption of three major decisions:1) the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS);
2) the post-2010 (2011-2020) Strategic Plan; and
3) a resource mobilization strategy with the objective of increasing resources to enhance the implementation of the Convention.Click here to read these decisions (they are the first three decisions in the list of COP10 outcomes).
2) the post-2010 (2011-2020) Strategic Plan; and
3) a resource mobilization strategy with the objective of increasing resources to enhance the implementation of the Convention.Click here to read these decisions (they are the first three decisions in the list of COP10 outcomes).
Parties have one year, between 02 February 2011 – 01 February 2012, to ratify the legally binding ABS Protocol. The Protocol will only enter into force after 50 ratifications. Although the Protocol was adopted, after many years of negotiations, some Parties were not satisfied. Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba and some African nations expressed their concerns over the Protocol, which they find does not take into account their views. However, they did not stand in the way of its adoption.
Parties to the Convention also adopted a decision which endorsed the Government of Japan’s proposal, submitted on September 22 at the United Nations General Assembly High Level meeting, to declare 2011-2020 as the UN Decade on Biodiversity. The objective of the proposal is to create momentum for the implementation of the CBD and its new Strategic Plan, as well as contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Many NGOs, including Conservation International and the Canadian Environmental Network, have supported the proposal.
There was some concern around the CBD’s implementation, but these decisions have given us a little bit of hope. However, let’s not forget that actions speak louder than words, and ink and paper. That being said, we ask you to send a letter urging the Canadian government to take action to conserve Canada’s biodiversity during this International Year of Biodiversity.
