Trinidad and Tobago as a Party to the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was invited to participate in the Regional
Consultation on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework for
Latin America and the Caribbean which took place in Montevideo, Uruguay during
the period May 14th - 17th, 2019. Trinidad and Tobago was
represented at this Consultation by Dr. David Persaud, Environmental Manager,
Environmental Policy and Planning Division, Ministry of Planning and
Development.
In 2020, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to
the CBD at its fifteenth meeting (COP-15) is expected to consider for adoption,
the post-2020 global biodiversity framework as a stepping stone towards the 2050
Vision of "Living in Harmony with Nature". The process adopted by Parties to
develop the post-2020 global biodiversity framework contains a set of
principles to guide its implementation and organisation of work. It also sets
out a comprehensive consultation process, including provisions for global,
regional and thematic consultation meetings.
The Latin American and Caribbean Regional
Consultation was structured to be an open and transparent process to allow the
exchange of views and interaction among the major stakeholders. Accordingly,
there were approximately eighty (80) participants that took part in the
discussions including representatives from Governments, Academia, Private
Sector, Non-Government Organisations, Indigenous Peoples, Regional Gender
Organisations representing youth and women, UN Agencies (FAO and UNDP), GEF
Secretariat, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the World Bank.
One of the major areas of concern expressed at
the Consultation was the lack of “international political will” to address the
biodiversity crisis. The global decline in biodiversity will have impacts on
agriculture productivity, food security and the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals. The 2010 Global Biodiversity Target was not
achieved and there is strong evidence to suggest that the 2020 Aichi
Biodiversity Targets will also not be achieved. The lessons learnt with
the negotiations with the Paris Agreement that brought focus and priority by
world leaders and the global media to address climate change is instructive,
and should be translated to strengthen the political will to address
biodiversity issues. In this regard, special sessions focusing on biodiversity
are to be including in upcoming meetings of world leaders including the UN
General Assembly and G7.
At the Consultation, some regional Governments
were advocating that similar to the Paris Agreement, the post 2020 global
biodiversity framework should not be a voluntary commitment but be legally
binding. Other participants disagreed with such a proposal, indicating that
biodiversity issues are different from climate change and such commitments
should be voluntary. A number of participants expressed the view that the lack
of achievement of the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets was as a
result of the great difficulty in translating the global targets into
indicators that could be mainstreamed, integrated and implemented nationally.
Some of the global targets were not transferable nationally, especially for
small islands with limited land space and competing demands for land use.
In order to address this concern, it was
suggested that countries be provided the opportunity under the post-2020 global
biodiversity framework to submit its national contribution toward the
achievement of global biodiversity targets. This will allow countries to
indicate which of the global targets are realistic and achievable nationally.
It was suggested that these national contributions towards the post-2020 global
biodiversity target be termed – “National Determined Contribution Towards the
Protection of Nature”. The Regional Consultation process was the first steps
towards the development and eventual adoption of a Post 2020 Global
Biodiversity Framework at COP-15 to take place in China in 2020.
