COP 16, Success or Failure?
COP16, Success or Failure?
A new fund that shifts some of the profits from nature’s DNA to global conservation efforts
COP16, Success or Failure?
Global leaders meet at COP16 as biodiversity loss accelerates at an alarming rate
A new fund that shifts some of the profits from nature’s DNA to global conservation efforts was agreed upon. However, at COP 16 the fund was made voluntary.
A new fund that shifts some of the profits from nature’s DNA to global conservation efforts was agreed upon. The agreement calls for companies that make money from genetic information stored in databases, to pay into a fund as a fee for the use of biodiversity.
However, COP 16, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, made the fund voluntary, saying that companies should contribute. Half of the funds are directed toward Indigenous groups, signalling the growing recognition of Indigenous people as custodians of biodiversity.
In terms of concrete outcomes, “Two years on, the vast majority of nature targets agreed in Montreal regrettably currently still feel like unfunded words on paper,” said Catherine Weller, director of global policy at Fauna & Flora, a conservation group.
A positive outcome was that Indigenous people got a permanent body that would give them more influence over negotiations, and for certain communities of African descent in Latin America, whose contributions to nature were recognized for the first time.
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