Biodiversity

From the Biodiversity COP16 to the Climate COP29: Building Equitable Accountability, Alignment, and Adequacy on Finance

By Yamide Dagnet, Amanda Maxwell, Zak Smith, and Jennifer Skene
The United States just went through its most consequential election. While the outcome raises questions about what the re-election of Trump means for U.S. engagement in global climate talks moving forward (in view of his previous stunt), the game is still on, with or without him. Despite the challenges, local communities, cities, states, private actors, and the public more broadly have embarked on an unstoppable journey—upholding the spirit of the Paris Agreement.

Voices from the Margins: Small-Scale Fishers Demand Rights, Recognition at COP16

By Aishwarya Bajpai
Small-scale fishers play a fundamental role in feeding people—they use sustainable methods of catching and processing fish products and are a significant force in the employment and livelihoods of millions of people internationally—yet, until now, they have been excluded from climate and biodiversity conferences.

Diverse Diets Are Essential for Nourishing a Healthy Planet as Well as Healthy People

By Shakuntala Thilsted and Cargele Masso
It’s often said that we are what we eat. However, our diets are also a reflection on the health of our food systems, the environment and agricultural biodiversity.

COP16 Delivers on Indigenous Peoples, Digital Sequencing, But Fails on Finance

By Stella Paul
The curtains fell on the 16th Conference of the Parties of UN Biodiversity (COP16) on Sunday without any formal closing. In a voice message, David Ainsworth, the Communications Director of the UNCBD, confirmed that the COP was suspended due to a lack of quorum in the plenary and would be resumed sometime later. However, before being suspended, the parties managed to adopt a historic decision to open the door for Indigenous Peoples (IPS) and local communities (LCs) to influence the global plan to halt the destruction of biodiversity.

Defending Biodiversity in Armed Conflict: Can COP16 Meet the Expectations?

By Stella Paul
José Aruna, a forest defender from Sud Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), remembers the night in September 2019 when a group of heavily armed men barged into his house in the middle of the night. Aruna and his wife—6 months pregnant at the time—were in bed when he heard sounds of boots on the front yard and quickly knew something was about to happen.

Food Security Is Key To Making ‘Peace with Nature’

By Susana Muhamad and Kaveh Zahedi
As countries are meeting in Cali, Colombia, for the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 16), the fate of biodiversity hangs in the balance, and with it, the sustainability of our food systems.

Chickens as Well as Cheetahs: Biodiversity Conservation Must Also Include Livestock

By Christian Tiambo
As the UN’s COP16 biodiversity conference continues, the temptation is to focus on the wild flora and fauna under threat. But there is another, less obvious yet just as critical biodiversity crisis unfolding around the world that also deserves attention.

By Choosing What We Eat, We Choose the World We Want To Live In

By Busani Bafana
“How we prepare and eat food should not be at the expense of our biodiversity,” says 3-Michelin-starred chef Mauro Colagreco, who is on a mission to change our relationship with food and what we choose to eat. Colagreco, the owner of Mirazur, an award-winning restaurant in Menton, France, is a tribute to gastronomy. Among other world rankings, Mirazur's fine food and service have earned it first place in the World's 50 Best Restaurants. In the 2020 edition of the "100 Chefs" world ranking, Colagreco's peers named him the Best Chef in the World and Chef of the Year in 2019. 

At COP16, Biodiversity Credits Raising Hopes and Protests

By Stella Paul
At the end of the first week at the 16th Conference of Parties on Biodiversity (COP16), finance emerges as the biggest issue but also shrouded in controversies. On Saturday, as the COP moved closer to its most crucial phase of negotiations, resource mobilization—listed under Target 19 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF)—took centerstage, with most parties demanding faster action, greater transparency and the adoption of true solutions to halt biodiversity loss. 

UNEP’s 2024 Emissions Gap Report Warns: ‘No More Hot Air, Please’

By Umar Manzoor Shah
The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2024 delivered a stark reminder that the world is still far from meeting its climate commitments.

COP16 – Is This Our Last Chance to Save Nature?

By Gavin Bruce
As COP16 approaches, we have been reflecting on the state of our planet in 2024; the word "crisis" feels insufficient to describe the devastation we're witnessing.

Capacity Building Is Key to Africa’s Digital Sequencing Success Story

By Busani Bafana
Christian Tiambo has always wished to uplift local farmers’ communities through cutting-edge science. As climate change wreaked havoc on local agriculture, Tiambo, a livestock scientist at the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) and at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), focused on conserving and developing livestock that could withstand environmental stress.

The Future of Food Security Lies Beyond COP29’s Negotiation Tables

By Jesus Quintana
Climate change has thrown our food systems into chaos. Extreme weather events and dramatic climate variations are hammering food production and supply chains across the world. As global leaders gear up for COP29, there’s plenty of buzz about climate action. But can we really expect these slow-moving, bureaucratic negotiations to deliver tangible and swift results to decarbonize and insulate our agri-food systems? Most likely not. But do not despair. While the COP29 talks unfold, crucial climate solutions for transforming food systems are already taking root on the ground.

Biodiversity Goal Can Be Achieved in the Southern Ocean

By Pascal Lamy and Geneviève Pons
COP16, the much-anticipated follow-up talks to the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreement, which aims to reverse an alarming loss of nature on land and sea, opens in Cali, Colombia.

Transparency and Inclusion: The Keys to Successful 30×30 Conservation

By John Amos
Two years ago world leaders from nearly 200 countries made a landmark commitment to protect and conserve at least 30% of the planet's land, ocean, and freshwater by 2030 - an initiative known as "30x30".

Building Water Security for the Next Generation in the Pacific Territories

By Catherine Wilson
The Pacific Islands region is both the frontline of the wrath that climate change is lashing on the environment and human life and the drive for innovation and solutions to stem the destruction and strengthen island environments for the future. The survival of life, even nations, in the Pacific depends on it.

IPBES Calls for Holistic Solutions, Transformative Change in Tackling Biodiversity Loss

By Busani Bafana
A holistic approach and transformative change of systems are needed to tackle biodiversity loss and to put the world on a sustainable path, an assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has recommended. The world is facing an interconnected crisis of unprecedented biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and environmental degradation that can no longer be tackled through fragmented and piecemeal solutions, a forthcoming assessment by IPBES will show, calling for holistic approaches instead. 

Agroecology: The Game-Changing Solution to Global Food, Climate and Conflict Crises

By Busani Bafana
Edward Mukiibi, President of Slow Food, champions agroecology as a transformative answer to the world's most pressing crises: food insecurity, climate change, and violent conflicts. In a world where these challenges intersect, Mukiibi called for an urgent rethink of our approach to food systems. 

Biogas, a Circular Energy, Advances in Brazil Thanks to Local Arrangements

By Mario Osava
“I don't know of a more sustainable technology for the transformation of society than biogas,” said Professor Alex Enrich-Prast, an activist for this energy alternative with a highly diversified and decentralised expansion in Brazil.

Cuba’s Coastal Dwellers Mitigate the Effects of Climate Change

By Dariel Pradas
Every time a hurricane clouds the skies over the city of Manzanillo, in the eastern Cuban province of Granma, the sea pounds the Litoral neighbourhood, forcing many of the 200 families who live there to evacuate inland because of flooding. When the weather is calm, the sea penetrates subtly and constantly, salinizing the water table and eroding the coast, affecting the foundations of houses and artesian wells.

Rising Temperatures Devastate Agricultural Eden of India’s Kashmir Region

By Umar Manzoor Shah
Abdul Hameed Sheikh sowed his crop, working tirelessly for days in his paddy field. The 52-year-old farmer, from central Kashmir’s Budgam area, religiously irrigated his 3-acre plot to keep the soil well hydrated. He waited for the rain, but days passed and it didn’t come.
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