Civil society seeks steps to implement biodiversity convention

Hyderabad, Oct 8

The Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) Alliance, comprising civil society, NGOs and grassroots environmental groups, Monday called upon the countries attending the UN global biodiversity meet here to go beyond talks and act on what has already been agreed upon.

The CBD Alliance said the eleventh meeting of the United Nations' Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the CBD should take immediate steps for implementation of the CBD instead of merely indulging in long deliberations.

Representatives of these groups were addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the COP 11, which began here.

Over 10,000 delegates from 173 countries are attending the conference, which will continue till Oct 19. They are discussing the progress made and challenges to implement the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which was adopted at COP 10 in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.

"The CBD process should bring sharp focus on implementation of the commitments made by governments over the past 20 years," said S. Faizi, of the Indian Biodiversity Forum.

"COP10 in Nagoya moved the biodiversity agenda significantly forward. We have a new set of 20 targets, and only 8 years to achieve them. COP11 doesn't need to generate another stack of documents, and hold endless meetings. We actually know what needs to be done," he said.

Simone Lovera, executive director of the Global Forest Coalition, pointed out how the lack of funding had frustrated the implementation of COP decisions and led to donor and corporate interests unduly influencing biodiversity policy making.

"We reject corporate-driven agendas to promote bioeconomy and the financialization of nature through perverse incentives like subsidies for biofuels, dangerous experiments in synthetic biology, genetically modified trees and geo-engineering," she said.

Gunn-Britt Retter of the Saami Council claimed that the current emphasis on economic growth as a solution to the global economic crisis had affected indigenous peoples in far greater and disproportionate ways.

Source: http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a332922.html

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