[EnB] Convention on Biodiversity CBD: Prologue to Cartagena, Nagoya, Aichi, COP-11

1. What is UNEP?
2. Earth Summit?
3. What is the connection between UNEP and Earth Summit?
4. Kids of Earth Summit
5. What is Convention on Biodiversity CBD?
6. What does CBD want?
7. Objective#1: Protect Biodiversity
8. Where is the money?
9. How does CBD work?
10. Mock Questions

What is UNEP?

• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• An organization under United Nations. (1972)
• The United Nations General Assembly elects the UNEP governing council members.
• Headquarter is at Nairobi, Kenya

Earth Summit?

• Conference held in Rio-De-Janerio, Brazil in 1992
• Formal name: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)

What is the connection between UNEP and Earth Summit?

• In the late 80s, the UNEP members decided we should have some sort of international agreement to protect biodiversity.
• They worked on a draft Agreement. (Nairobi Conference)
• In 1992, when Earth Summit was held in Rio, Brazil, these UNEP people put that draft-agreement on the table, and requested various countries to sign it.
• This signed international agreement is known as “Convention on Biodiversity.” (Official name =Convention on Biological Diversity)

Children of Earth Summit

Earth summit, 1992 gave birth to many things. But three important kids were:

As the year progressed, these three kids (CBD, UNFCC, Agenda 21) grew up, had their own kids.

We can summarize this in an equation and a Chart
Earth Summit=> CBD (Cartagena+ Aichi+Nagoya) +UNFCCC (Kyoto+Copanheggan) +Agenda 21 (RIO+20)

Once ^this is clear, observe the following timeline to see the ‘bigger picture’ of how every piece fits into the puzzle.

Click to Enlarge

What is CBD?

• Convention =International Agreement.
• Convention on Biodiversity is the brainchild of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• Headquarter is Montreal, Canada. It works under UNEP.

What does CBD want?
Convention on Biodiversity CBD wants three things and it leads to three more things.

Objective#1: Protect Biodiversity

• You already know what is biodiversity, why is it important, what is in-situ, ex-situ. If you don’t know those basic concepts, refer to NIOS study material and my old articles.
• Welcome back. Convention on Biodiversity, as the name suggests = has something to do with biodiversity.

CBD accepts/wants following things

1. Biological diversity is a common concern of humankind.
2. States have sovereign rights over their own biological resources.
3. But at the same time, States are responsible for conserving their biological diversity.
4. Therefore, States are required to create National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP).
5. Sustainable use of biological diversity =important for food security, health and other needs of public.
6. Biological diversity is being significantly reduced by certain human activities.
7. But We’ll protect biodiversity via in-situ and ex-situ methods.
8. We recognize vital role of women and NGOs in protecting biodiversity.
9. Our rich members (developed countries) will give money and (secret James Bond) technology to the middle class and poor members (developing nations and Least developed countries)
10. We’ll give special attention to the least developed countries (L.D.C.) and small island States, because they’re more vulnerable.
11. We’ll also give special attention to developing countries, especially those with arid and semi- arid zones, coastal and mountainous areas.
12. + add public awareness, sensitization, knowledge -sharing and other diplomatic-legal fodder.

Where is the money?

• To fund various projects, activities under CBD, you need truckload of cash.
• This cash comes through an organization named as Global Environment Facility (GEF).
• GEF gets money from world bank, UN, various (rich) nations and trust organization, companies etc.
• GEF gives that money to finance many environment related activies including

1. Convention on Biological Diversity or Convention on Biodiversity CBD
2. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

How does Convention on Biodiversity work?

• Convention = international agreement.
• Legally speaking, “agreement” involves two or more “parties”.
• So CBD doesn’t have “members” it has “parties”: rich parties on one side, middle class and poor parties on the other.
• These parties meet at regular interval. These meetings are called Conference of Parties (COP).
• In these Meetings, the leaders, delegates consume desi-liquor (to provide sustainable livelihood to local communities) and evaluate their past achievements; lay down future course of action, money and technology transfer to third world.
• Each party has one vote. Decision taken by majority vote. These meetings led to Cartagena Biosafety Protocol (2000).
• 10^th Such meeting was held at Nagoya, Japan (2010). It led to Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources + Aichi Targets.
• 11^th such meeting (COP-11) was held in Hyderabad, India in 2012

Each of them (Cartagena, Nagoya, Aichi, COP-11) will be discussed in future article.

Mock Questions

Q. Which of the following statements are correct?

1. Parties of UNFCCC are required to create National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP).
2. Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols are part of Agenda 21.

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. Both
4. None

Q. which of the following is incorrectly matched?

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. Only 2 and 3
4. Only 1 and 3

Q. Which of the following is correctly matched

1. Only 1 and 2
2. Only 2 and 3
3. Only 1 and 3
4. All of them.

Q. Which of the following statements are correct?

1. Headquarter of CBD is in Kenya
2. Headquarter of UNEP is in Switzerland

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. Both
4. None

Q. Which of the following is correct chronologically (old to new)

1. Aichi Target, Earth Summit, Convention on Biodiversity, Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
2. Earth Summit, Convention on Biodiversity, Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Aichi Target
3. Convention on Biodiversity, Earth Summit, Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Aichi Target
4. None of above.

For additional details, you may refer to the official site of CBD.