🌍 All eyes on #COP16Colombia 🌍
Today marks the beginning of #COP16 in Cali, Colombia, under the slogan “Peace with Nature”. The main goal is to review progress on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (#GBF) and advance international negotiations. 🌿
Solveig Richter, iDiv associate member and peace and conflict scholar, states:
“The slogan of “Peace with Nature” brings our attention to the fact that countries with the highest biodiversity rates are mostly in the Global South and face the double risk of climate change and armed conflicts. Colombia is a case in point with biodiversity hotspots in territories where criminal gangs illegally exploit minerals, or in the Amazon region with huge deforestation by dissident rebel groups. Instead of central governments, it is often environmental activists or indigenous groups at local level that protect the nature but engage under high risks. To make biodiversity protection more effective, the host country Colombia wants to create a space to bridge the gap between the needs of local communities and (inter)national stakeholders, researchers, and decision makers. Hopefully, governments will really listen.
In my research, I have shown that local communities have their own, often informal, ways to adapt to ecosystem changes that are sometimes different to what national and international frameworks demand.”
COP16 Colombia will be an important opportunity to secure political support and move toward implementing existing commitments.
Discussions will also cover:
• fair benefit-sharing of digitally sequenced genetic information derived from nature;
• solutions to close the $700-billion biodiversity finance gap;
• how to address emerging challenges, such as synthetic biology, biosafety, and biodiversity-health linkages.
Updates and insights about the ongoing negotiations and iDiv’s contributions will follow.
#COP16 #COP16Colombia #iDiv #Biodiversity #GBF #PeaceWithNature
Related publication:
Amador-Jimenez, M., Ramos Baron, P. A., & Richter, S. (2024). Complementary ways of seeing “the Nature”: Integrating varieties of knowledge practices in the management of local environmental conflicts in Colombia. Environment and Security, 2(1), 47-74. https://lnkd.in/eU2uWjzu
