“Biodiversity is fundamental to human well-being, a healthy planet, and economic prosperity for all people, including for living well in balance and in harmony with Mother Earth. We depend on it for food, medicine, energy, clean air and water, security from natural disasters as well as recreation and cultural inspiration, and it supports all systems of life on earth.”
This statement opens the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Yet, despite this acknowledgement, biodiversity loss continues unabated. Will the GBF steer the transformative change required to reverse this trend? Focusing on implementation, the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference reviewed the development of national targets and the alignment of national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) with the GBF, with delegates celebrating the submission of 119 national targets and 44 NBSAPs as of 1 November 2024, as the first but necessary step.
The 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference was convened from 21 October to 1 November 2024, in Cali, Colombia. It was preceded by the fifth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 5) from 16-18 October, and an opening ceremony on 20 October. The Conference included concurrent meetings of the governing bodies of the CBD and its Protocols: the 16th meeting of the CBD COP, the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (MOP 11) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CP), and the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (MOP 5) to the Nagoya Protocol (NP) on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from their Utilization (ABS).