Securing Our Biodiversity

Recent global negotiations related to biodiversity have set in place a range of recommendations for 196 countries to support their action plan towards achieving their respective targets as per the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Strategic Plan (2011-2020).

- Dr. Balakrishna Pisupati

Biodiversity or biological diversity is the life insurance policy for life itself! This was the tagline used during the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg.

Considering the importance of biodiversity for human well-being and development, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that came into force on 29th December 1993.

The CBD has been the most important multilateral legally-binding agreement in the field of biodiversity with 196 countries being its parties, supported by the Conference of Parties (COP) as the Governing Body that uses the recommendations from the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI).

The parties also negotiated and adopted three protocols under the CBD – the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2000), the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010) and the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2010). The Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol will enter into force on 5th March 2018.

The twenty-first meeting of the SBSTTA (SBSTTA 21) and the tenth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions (related to Traditional Knowledge) were held in Montreal, Canada during December 2017.