Third World Network - The world is facing a polycrisis rooted in an inequitable model: Biodiversity loss, climate breakdown and pollution are interlocking symptoms of a system that rewards short-term extraction and profit for a few, placing economic growth above social and environmental wellbeing for all.
The ‘elephants in the room’ – the structural root causes of biodiversity destruction – remain unaddressed. A new report, We Need to Talk About the Elephants in the Room (And Why Ignoring Them Perpetuates Biodiversity Destruction), focus on four distinct ‘elephants in the room’ that are unaddressed, or at any rate not squarely addressed. The global review is not designed to contend with these issues, and its focus on gaps in implementation and finance is insufficient. Addressing symptoms without tackling these deeper structural root causes will not halt biodiversity loss and harm to peoples.
Emily Mutota & Mariam Mayet (African Centre for Biodiversity) - The CBD’s first global review should be the COP17’s reckoning moment. It must ask not whether governments have updated plans, announced finance, or placed more hectares on a map, but whether implementation restores biodiversity while strengthening the rights and authority of those sustaining living landscapes. Otherwise, the review risks becoming an exercise in global greenwashing. This is the central warning of the African Centre for Biodiversity’s new study "Biodiversity, land, and power: 30x30, communal livestock systems, and food sovereignty in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana."
Nithin Ramakrishnan (Third World Network) - As CBD COP17 opens, the Cali Fund is celebrated as a breakthrough in biodiversity finance, despite limited contributions from DSI users. Behind the celebrations lies a question of justice: who is paying for what, and who is being asked to make concessions? The Cali Fund is the financial arm of the CBD’s multilateral mechanism, established to address inequities in benefit-sharing from DSI. Its success must be measured not only by the revenue it raises for biodiversity, but by whether it prevents digital biopiracy and ensures that provider countries and communities can participate in and benefit from scientific progress.
