ISPN participated in the second part of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, COP15, held in Montreal, Canada, between December 7 and 19, 2022. Initiated in Kunming, China, in October 2021, this was certainly the most important Biodiversity Conference in recent decades, and resulted in the approval of the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)or Global Framework for Biodiversity. This is a landmark agreement to protect 30% of natural areas (land, oceans, coastal areas and inland waters) by 2030 worldwide, and to restore 30% of already degraded ecosystems.
Despite the efforts and investments made since Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, when the Aichi Targets were agreed upon to safeguard the planet's biodiversity, countries and the private sector have had little success in curbing the accelerated loss of biodiversity and natural ecosystems, which threatens the future of humanity.
We are totally dependent on the benefits provided by Nature to feed ourselves, establish homes, generate energy, live healthily, and maintain the Earth's climate, and yet, with the predatory and reckless encroachment upon it, we are facing the two main crises of our time: climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
Indigenous peoples and traditional communities are the main guardians of Nature, and recognizing the contributions of their conserved and managed territories to the objectives of biodiversity conservation and global climate regulation was our main agenda at COP15. Motivated to promote greater participation of civil society and indigenous peoples and traditional communities, we supported the presence of leaders and representatives of groups holding traditional knowledge associated with the sustainable use of Brazilian biodiversity in Montreal.
Antonia Cariongo, a quilombola leader from Maranhão, participated in panel discussions related to the socio-biodiversity economy. She analyzed the impact of business initiatives on the territories, emphasizing the need for joint partnerships that promote reciprocal benefits and respect the communities. Antonia played a prominent role in exposing the contradictions of a bioeconomy narrative that forgets the people, uses the resources of the territories, and, besides presenting a beautiful image for the market, neither adds value to nor enhances the livelihoods of the communities. This was one of the hot topics in the negotiations: the sustainable use of knowledge associated with the practices and livelihoods of traditional populations, especially related to Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits.
The DSI (Digital Information System) enables the transfer and storage of genetic information developed by indigenous peoples through selection processes and the generation of ancestral knowledge. Developed countries that concentrate these freely accessible digital banks for companies and corporations opposed, until the very last moment, the establishment of an Access and Benefit-Sharing Fund, which was ultimately created without defined rules for its operation, delegated to the next COP16, scheduled for 2024. The challenge is the implementation of mechanisms for the traceability of the origin of this information in biodiversity management processes by traditional communities, as a way to guarantee the fair and equitable sharing of benefits.
The mobilization of new, additional, and complementary resources for an expanded conservation ambition within the Global Biodiversity Framework was another contentious issue that hindered the progress and definition of the negotiations. At one point, a group of delegates from developing countries, including megadiverse countries with similar views, abandoned the negotiations due to differences of opinion on several issues related to resource mobilization. This departure was precipitated by a discussion about the creation of a new biodiversity fund.
The group's understanding indicated that countries rich in biodiversity will bear a greater burden than others in implementing an ambitious Global Biodiversity Framework. Therefore, its adoption should be accompanied by the approval of a proportionally robust package on resource mobilization. Ultimately, the commitment from governments to eliminate harmful subsidies to nature, reducing them substantially and progressively by at least US$500 billion per year, was well received.
Similarly, there is a broader commitment to substantially and progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources, national and international, public and private, by 2030, mobilizing at least $200 billion per year. Another major achievement is also the commitment of $20 billion. per annum in international financial flows by 2025 and 30 billion by 2030.
ISPN's experience in supporting eco-social projects and implementing the Promotion of Productive Eco-social Landscapes (PPP-ECOS) strategy can serve to improve the role of collective actions, including those by indigenous peoples and local communities, in community-based management of natural resources and cooperation aimed at biodiversity conservation.
During COP15 we participated in a meeting of partners of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that marked ten years since the creation of an advisory group on Indigenous Peoples, IPAG, to discuss how support programs for traditional communities can and should promote the guarantee of human rights for all peoples.
We were also present at the 30th anniversary ceremony of the Small Grants Programme (SGP), the GEF program, through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), implemented in Brazil by ISPN. Discussions in this international forum, as well as in several others, also point to the need for funding to be more directly linked to the communities that conserve and protect these areas. The experience of PPP-ECOS and other funds linked to the Comuá Network, of which ISPN is a part, can also serve as an example for other emerging funds..
ISPN commends the effort and dedication with which representatives of indigenous peoples and traditional communities around the world have committed themselves to defending their rights and recognizing the contributions of their conserved and managed territories to the objectives of biodiversity conservation and global climate regulation. and added to that effort during the meeting, as well as in his daily practice.
There was a fear that the goal of conserving areas and restoring ecosystems would be used to expel traditional populations from their territories. After two weeks of often tense negotiations of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) He praised the text for its "strong language regarding respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities."
In a statement to the closing plenary session of the meeting, the IIFB celebrated “the timely recognition” of the contributions, roles, rights and responsibilities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities towards Mother Earth in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: “We have spoken and you have listened, let us now put these words into action.” The urgency of the environmental crisis does not end with the signing of the Framework, the IIFB stated, adding that “we must work quickly and efficiently for its implementation.”
ISPN shares this vision and is committed to serving conservation objectives through the sustainable use of biodiversity, acting in defense of the rights of peoples, communities, and family farmers. We will continue to promote productive eco-social landscapes and advance implementation, strengthening and building new meaningful partnerships to ensure adequate and direct access for peoples and communities to the resources necessary to achieve the ambition set out in this Global Biodiversity Framework. The future of humanity depends on it.