Protecting and restoring nature at COP15 and beyond

What is the Convention on Biodiversity?

The 1992 United Nations Convection on Biodiveristy (CBD) aims to prevent and reverse global biodiversity loss. The fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) is due to take place in December 2022 in Canada, hosted by the Chinese Government. COP15 was originally due to take place in 2021 in Kunming in China, but postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic

The CBD has three objectives:

• conservation of biodiversity
• sustainable use of biodiversity
• equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of global biodiversity’s genetic resources.

One of the main aims of COP15 is to agree a post 2020 global biodiversity framework as a successor to the strategic plan for biodiversity 2011-2020.  This set 20 biodiversity targets for 2020, often referred to as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Reporting in 2020 on whether the targets had been achieved, the CBD concluded that none had been fully achieved, but some progress had been made:

At the global level none of the 20 targets have been fully achieved, though six targets have been partially achieved (Targets 9, 11, 16, 17, 19 and 20). Examining the 60 specific elements of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, seven have been achieved and 38 show progress. Thirteen elements show no progress or indicate a move away from the target, and for two elements the level of progress is unknown.[1]

This pack includes information on negotiations for a post-2020 biodiversity framework, UK biodiversity policy and biodiversity statistics, as well as recent news items, press releases and Parliamentary material.

[1]     CBD Global Biodiversity Outlook 5; Summary for Policy makers, September 2020