COP16: Megadiverse Countries Call for Biodiversity Funding

New Delhi, Oct 22 (PTI) There is a significant between the financial target set to address the challenges relating to the global biodiversity and its implementation in reality, a multinational grouping, of which India is a member, has observed.

Target 19 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) aims to raise at least $200 billion per year by 2030 to support national biodiversity strategies and action plans.

The observation was made at the UN biodiversity conference COP16 by the Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries — a group of developing countries that negotiate together in international bodies like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.

The grouping stressed the need to establish a fund under the authority of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to support biodiversity efforts, without undermining national Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) systems.

Brazil, speaking on behalf of the grouping, emphasised the importance of ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in the development of a mechanism for digital sequence information on genetic resources, a delegate from the Latin American country said.

The LMMC comprises Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, and Venezuela.

India has updated its national plan to protect biodiversity in alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework which will be released at the biannual UN Biodiversity Conference.

One of the main goals of the KM-GBF is to protect at least 30 per cent of the world's land and oceans by 2030.

India updated its national biodiversity strategies to align it with the new goals set by the KM-GBF, adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada, an official said.

These statements marked the beginning of the official proceedings of the UN Biodiversity Conference, which includes the 16th meeting of the COP to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the 11th Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CP MOP 11), and the fifth Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol (NP MOP 5).

On Monday afternoon, two Working Groups gathered to review draft decisions and establish contact and informal groups to move negotiations forward.

Four contact groups met to discuss critical topics, including Indigenous knowledge and IPLC rights under Article 8(j), digital sequence information, biodiversity and health, and mainstreaming biodiversity into other sectors.

The outcomes of these discussions are expected to influence global biodiversity policies in the coming years.