How the ocean shone during the UN Biodiversity Conference 2024
- The 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Colombia, themed “Peace with Nature,” emphasized the importance of societal engagement and Indigenous peoples and local communities.
- COP16 on biodiversity was one of the bluest in recent memory, with major wins for the ocean, including reviving the ecologically or biologically significant marine areas process.
- Despite progress, the conference underscored the need for faster action towards the 2030 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets.
This October, the global community met in Cali, Colombia, at the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16), where meetings of the governing bodies of the convention’s two protocols were also held.
More than 20,000 participated, the highest number on record, with high hopes and expectations.
Such attention was not surprising, as it was the convention’s first meeting of its governing bodies since adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Issues such as its monitoring framework and resource mobilization were high on the agenda.
Colombia, as conference host and holder of the COP presidency until the next conference, selected “Peace with Nature” as the theme, echoing the UN Secretary-General’s call to make peace with nature.
Also known as the “People’s COP,” it focused strongly on broad societal mobilization and the key roles of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Many also called it the “Implementation COP” due to the attention paid to how best to finance and monitor the implementation of the global biodiversity framework.
