Outcomes and Implications of COP-10 CBD, Nagoya, Japan
December 01, 2010
The tenth international conference of the 193 countries that have signed the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-10 CBD), recently held in Nagoya, was arguably the most successful in its history, with significant implications for the way governments and businesses manage ‘biodiversity’. Ironic then, that it began with an admission of failure.
The failure was that the international community conclusively missed a target agreed in 2002: to reduce significantly the global rate of ‘biodiversity’ loss (essentially, the loss in variety and abundance of living organisms) by 2010. However, the way biodiversity is viewed by governments, businesses and scientists has developed enormously over the last decade; and there is every reason to believe that the remarkable agreements forged in October 2010, in Nagoya, will have ramifications for all.
To summarise the key headlines:
(1) Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS):
a new regime, for ‘equitably’ sharing the proceeds from the use of lucrative natural resources, was agreed. This sets guidelines for the access to/use of biological resources and associated products (for instance, by the pharmaceutical, agricultural, or biotechnology sectors). In particular, this regime demands the sharing of proceeds between those developing and using the resources, and those historically ‘owning’ them;
(2) New Strategy:
a revised global biodiversity strategy for the coming decade was confirmed, containing 20 headline targets, which suggest specific new requirements upon business.
These targets fall into five categories:
(i) Addressing the underlying causes of biodiversity loss (e.g. by removing ‘harmful’ financial subsidies);
(ii) Reducing direct pressures on biodiversity (e.g. by halving the rate of loss of natural areas/habitats);
(iii) To improve the status of biodiversity (e.g. by creating reserves covering at least 17% of land and 10% of marine areas globally, a significant increase);
(iv) Enhance benefits from biodiversity (e.g. through achieving a number of these targets by 2015) and;
(v) Enhance the implementation of the plan (e.g. all countries to have national biodiversity action plans by 2015);
(3) Resource Mobilisation:
successful, and much sought-after, agreement on an acceptable regime for financing and implementing the new Strategic Plan (see above). This particularly includes the provision of financial, technological and organisational support for biodiversity conservation in developing nations;
(4) Other agreements:
numerous other agreements, including a plan for Business Engagement which recognises the important role business has to play, and setting out how governments will work alongside the private sector in achieving biodiversity objectives.
Why, then, is this of interest to business? First and foremost: because the outcomes of Nagoya will influence policy, legislation, stakeholder opinion, and investment in favour of increased biodiversity conservation. Businesses will be increasingly expected to understand, monitor and manage their impacts upon biodiversity. These are both challenges, and opportunities, for industry.
However, at a deeper level, the agreements reached are a sign of the times: rich biodiversity is now widely understood to be key to functioning natural systems, and thus fundamental to a number of the goods and services upon which businesses depend. These can be everything from provision of raw materials, to water purification or crop pollination, to waste removal, and beyond. Across a range of sectors, businesses either already rely directly upon those services unawares, and/or can potentially use an understanding of them to realize improvements to existing business models.
Whilst leaders at the 2009 Climate Change conference in Copenhagen failed to reach agreement in certain areas, at Nagoya 2010 they apparently succeeded across the board. And whilst ‘carbon’ continues to grow in importance as a new commodity in the global economy, it is abundantly clear that biodiversity will not be far behind.
Joe Bull currently holds a full time research position at Imperial College, London. Joe’s main area of expertise is in business and biodiversity, and in particular, landscape-scale conservation strategies. Prior to this he worked for a number of years as an environmental consultant with Bureau Veritas UK, advising the private sector on ecological management and climate change issues. Joe has an MSC in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, and is a qualified environmental auditor.
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