Image Diego Noguera/IISD/ENB

Global agreements safeguard nature and secure our future

The 196 Parties of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity are expected to adopt a new global biodiversity framework at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) to the CBD, scheduled for October 2020 in Kunming, China.

With a focus on the potential elements and structure of a landmark agreement to safeguard nature and secure our future, the first meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework was held 27-30 August 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya. More than 500 delegates from 100 countries, including a wide range of organizations from indigenous groups, civil society, local authorities and business, took part in the first round of official discussions for a new global biodiversity framework. Parties and observers to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) affirmed their commitment to work together towards an agreement for nature and for people that provides the necessary transformative changes.


"The global public senses the biodiversity crisis in their own lives and communities,” said Elizabeth Maruma Mrena, CBD Acting Executive Secretary. “They also increasingly see widespread ecological catastrophes as an affront to their values and future. There is no time to waste; the costs of inaction only keep rising.The framework should account for the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss and promote transformative change." 

 

Press Release