Strengthening Biodiversity

In November, the UN Global Summit on Biodiversity, COP16, will be held in Cali, Colombia. The SMC – Faith in development (SMC), together with a delegation from member organisations and partner organisations, will be represented.

Erik Bäckelid, advisor at SMC, is one of those who will participate in the summit.

– The loss of biodiversity is alarming. Together with climate change, it is humanity’s main environmental challenge and threat to survival. We know that faith-based actors are a strong force to be reckoned with, both in terms of land ownership and power, but also in that faith can be a basis for change and solution.

The purpose of the trip is to learn more about how civil society organisations, and in particular faith-based organisations, can connect with national and local partners. Through increased collaboration, they can work more strategically in areas such as advocacy and interventions. SMR’s role has already previously involved supporting member organisations and partners to strengthen their networks, which SMR has done, among other things, by connecting partners with WWF in several countries.

Something that the delegation is looking forward to during COP16 is the exchange of experiences and the opportunity to learn more about methods and techniques to contribute to increased biodiversity in areas such as agricultural development and livelihoods.

On the summit’s agenda is a discussion on the implementation of the global framework for biodiversity. The global framework was decided at COP15 two years ago and was an important step in increasing the speed of transition for biodiversity and making it possible to follow up on the work. According to that agreement, the processes should be inclusive and allow civil society actors to participate in both planning and implementation.

– We will follow up on everything we learn during COP16 so that it benefits the entire SMR network, says Erik Bäckelid.

ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED AT COP16

• Implementation: All countries must have national implementation plans in place by COP16.
• Financing: Developing countries need to be given the capacity to implement the framework. $30 billion will be given annually from rich countries to developing countries from 2030, and $20 billion from 2025.
• Fair sharing of benefits: This concerns “genetic material”, i.e. genetic parts of plants or animals, and how benefits are to be derived from these, for example, in the manufacture of medicines and the like. This is regulated in a special protocol.