ECO 70(8) - Wednesday, 30 October

“Dis- establish” CBD processes and decisions??! - A dangerous precedent!

Jim Thomas, Friends of the Earth US - At the Contact Group on Synthetic Biology on Monday night a potentially dangerous line was crossed for the wider integrity and trust in CBD decision-making. Despite two agreed previous COP decisions on he need for and establishment of a broad and regular horizon scanning, assessment and monitoring process on Synthetic Biology, an unnamed party insisted on adding new text to “disestablish” this important process. ...

Voluntary or mandatory? And what's the scope?

Antje Lorch, Ecoropa - After 10 sessions of the Contact Group on DSI, lots of aspects of the decision has been covered, based on thematic questions, and the Co-Chairs trying to bring the answers together, rather then a line-by-line discussion of the text. But some fundamental questions are still open, while some question whether these questions are even open. ....

While negotiations continue on two of the biggest issues on finance – how to mobilise adequate resources and ensure they are accessible through a responsive financial mechanism – there is another major issue getting much less attention. The role of central banks and regulators. The UN estimates financial flows harming nature at US$ 7 trillion annually. The fact is that central banks and regulators do have a critical role to play in addressing the risks and impacts of the financial sector on nature loss. Indeed, many central banks are already starting to look at this. Target 14 is very clear that this is both the mandate of Parties and essential to the achievement of the GBF goals. - Laurel Sutherin, RAN

Integrating Biocultural Community Protocols into the work of Article 8(j)

Souparna Lahiri - COP16 is expected to decide on a new programme of work on Article 8(j) and other provisions of the Convention related to indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), aligned with the KMGBF, with the full and effective participation of IPLCs, with the development of important elements. While the important issue of direct access funding to IPLCs has been taken out of the negotiated text now, we are still waiting for a final agreement to integrate the elements of Biocultural Community Protocols (BCP). IPLCs have their own set of rules and practices to regulate and supervise intra and inter community interactions, relationship with outsiders, and with the territories and areas on which they depend. These are mostly referred to as customary laws and rights which have protected the homelands and territories of these communities, sustaining their traditional practices, knowledge and cultural heritage for generations.

The CBD as a vehicle to promote biotechnology?

Franziska Achterberg, Save Our Seeds - When the CBD was first written, biotechnology was – rightly – seen as a threat to biodiversity and its sustainable use. The Convention’s text focusses on the risks arising from the use and release of genetically engi-neered organisms, although it also talks about sharing the “results and benefits arising from biotechnologies” when they are based on genetic resources from deve-loping countries.
Fast forward to 2024 and the situation is very different. In the CBD context, there is more and more language about the potential benefits of biotechnology, to the detriment of the precautionary approach enshrined in the Convention. ...