COP16 must implement the Global Biodiversity Framework without any false solutions
Monday October 21st, 2024, Cali, COLOMBIA – The CBD COP 16 opens this week and represents a pivotal moment in international efforts to combat the escalating biodiversity crisis, and to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in 2022.
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is calling for a real system change to protect biodiversity and is urging the parties to address the root causes and drivers of biodiversity loss with a rights-based approach.
Nele Marien, co-coordinator of the Forest and Biodiversity Program, explains:
“Keeping nature-based solutions out of the climate and biodiversity decisions is crucial. We want to ensure that all climate policies undergo thorough assessments to evaluate their impact on biodiversity. Whenever they are found to have a detrimental impact on the environment, we call for an immediate moratorium to be established. »
FOEI stresses the utmost importance of understanding that biodiversity loss and climate change are interlinked systemic issues. Many climate policies that are false solutions and have detrimental impacts on biodiversity, such as monoculture tree plantations for capturing carbon, offsetting and nature-based solutions, exacerbate the biodiversity crisis and the climate one altogether. The CBD must forbid any wrongful climate policies and measures undermining biodiversity.
FOEI strongly emphasizes that biodiversity offsetting and crediting are not solutions. Biodiversity offsetting is grounded in the false assumption that preserving one area can compensate for ecosystem destruction elsewhere. Nele Marien develops further:
“The protection of biodiversity should not rely on its destruction, this is complete nonsense! Replacement ecosystems are typically of lower quality and can take decades. Other types of offset don’t even restore ecosystems at all. In the meantime, these policies often also infringe on Indigenous lands, as their territories are compromised under the guise of environmental protection. FoEI is combating this pervasive greenwashing that only maintains the business as usual.”
In the context of the sixth mass extinction, it is urgent to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis with evidence-based and realistic solutions. To effectively halt the ongoing destruction of biodiversity, FoEI is calling on the parties to agree on:
- A robust scientific review of the impacts of carbon-offsetting schemes and other negative climate decisions on biodiversity, to evaluate their inadequacies and detrimental consequences.
- A strengthened indicators framework to enable a thorough assessment of policies. Indicators should not be based on self-reporting and self-verification by corporate actors, as this leads to greenwashing and undermines biodiversity. Indicators must also incorporate the respect of human rights and the rights of indigenous people for more accountable environmental governance.
- A fair finance system, with a dedicated fund placed under the authority of the COP. A fair finance system should grant sufficient funds to the communities and countries most in need, and should not rely upon false solutions. This will facilitate real change on the ground and reduce these communities’ dependence on false solutions.
- A rights-based approach, full and equal participation for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in the management, conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
Publications
Collaborative report (with allies) “The Biodiversity Market Mirage: How Biodiversity offsetting and crediting destroys Nature and Undermines The Rights of Peoples” is available in English here – Spanish version coming soon.
Press contacts
SP & ENG: Olivia Ronsain, olivia@foei.org, +33 7 65 29 85 55 (Oct 21st-27th)
SP & ENG: José Elosegui, jose@foei.org, +598 98 846 967 (Oct 29th – Nov 1st)
Friends of the Earth International delegation in Cali
Nele Marien – Forests & Biodiversity International Programme Coordinator, in Cali from 21st October to 1st November, nele@foei.org / Twitter @nelemarien
Isaac Rojas – Forests & Biodiversity International Programme Coordinator, in Cali from 21st October to 1st November, isaac@coecoceiba.org
