COP 10 on Biodiversity: Nagoya agreement bridges the gap between nature and humanity
"After the disappointment of Copenhagen, a multilateral agreement was urgently needed for the sake of the environment worldwide. In this sense, the agreement that we have reached today at the Biodiversity Summit in Nagoya has come in the nick of time", says Joke Schauvliege, Flemish Minister for Environment, Nature and Culture.
"Moreover, as President of the European Environment Council, I am very pleased that the 27 EU-member states were able to speak with a single voice at the COP 10 and actively paved the way for an agreement".
The negotiations in Nagoya for the agreement on biodiversity lasted for three weeks. The issues were divided among two working parties. The first working party tackled all of the technical–scientific issues while the second group took on the more political issues concerning processes related to biodiversity.
In the final days of the 10th Conference of the Parties on the Convention on Biological Diversity, as expected, the most difficult points of contention proved establishing a new Strategic Plan 2011-2020, Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and the financing, known as the Resource Mobilisation Plan. Some of the issues touched upon sensitive topics in other areas such as the preservation of biodiversity in agricultural zones (with specific attention paid to biofuels), in forest zones, freshwater zones, marine and coastal zones, and within protected zones in general.
Of the three, Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) remained the most politically complex issue. The agreement on ABS concerns the equitable access to and distribution of the benefits of the use of genetic resources. This will involve innovative financial mechanisms. The idea is that if someone derives profit from genetic material by, for example, developing products with it, he must share the profits with the country in which the genetic building blocks from plants or other organisms come from. "ABS creates a win-win situation for North and South", according to Minister Schauvliege. "The South is compensated (this may be with money, technology, the establishment of research centres, ...). The North receives the legal certainty that entities such as companies can no longer be accused of piracy. This arrangement also recognises the rights of the indigenous populations and communities to the genetic material that is taken from their regions".
With regard to the new Strategic Plan 2011-2020 the EU has been able to realise its Council conclusions of this past October. The plan is both ambitious and realistic. It meets the objective of taking urgent and effective action to stop the loss of biodiversity. This objective also involves targets. For example, by 2020 the speed with which natural habitats, including forests, are losing biodiversity, will have to be reduced by at least half. Also by 2020 the natural assets of at least 17% of the protected zones on land and at least 10% in the water (coastal and marine zones) that are of exceptional value, must be preserved.
With regard to the Resource Mobilisation Plan, in Nagoya there was not just a blank cheque put on the table. The financing is linked to efforts regarding implementation. The developing countries that called for measures such as targets and indicators have joined the Plan.
Minister Schauvliege: "Nagoya is only a starting point. Implementation in the field can now be pursued more thoroughly. Biodiversity is not a luxury, but a necessity and a treasure. Nature determines the continued existence of humanity.
I’m also very pleased that the European Union has fully played its role as a leader here. This is something that was openly acknowledged by the other countries participating in the COP. After the failure of Copenhagen, the success of Nagoya can help restore the weakened faith in multilateral dialogue".
