The IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group
at COP16 Cali, Colombia
In what was the busiest and biggest CBD COP to date, COP16 in Cali, Colombia, was colourful and diverse with a great buzz of activity in the negotiating halls, meeting rooms, corridors, pavilions, and side events as 20,000 people from across the globe met in the blue zone.
This was the first COP since the adoption of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and billed as a stocktake of progress of implementation as many parties were reporting their actions and plans (NBSAPs - National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans). Some of the big topics being negotiated involved resources and financing for biodiversity, especially for developing nations and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Support for tackling some of the biggest threats to biodiversity, habitat loss and Invasive Alien Species being recurrent topics. Many parties used COP16 to launch their NBSAPs, and the IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) were keen to see how many of these contain meaningful actions on Invasive Alien Species.
When the formal negotiations turned to the topic of IAS, there was a decision that included guidance on various issues developed over the past four years by the Ad Hoc technical working group on IAS being formally adopted by the COP. Also, Japan adopted the intervention to include additional text to ‘note with appreciation’ the work undertaken by CBD, IUCN and ISSG to develop the toolkit on IAS. Additionally, the Parties agreed on the 'Welcoming of the IPBES assessment on Invasive Alien Species and its key messages', although it took prolonged discussion into the final plenary session to agree on the exact wording that all were happy with following concern over universal access to databases from the Russian Federation.
The final plenary of COP16 ran short of time to agree on all decisions, including on the finance mechanism for the Global Biodiversity Framework, and its monitoring framework. However, some landmark decisions were adopted, including the creation of the ‘Cali fund’, which will be a multilateral mechanism for voluntary contributions from industries that make use of digital sequencing information from genetic resources (DSI) which will be used to support actions towards meeting the KM-GBF. In addition, a new subsidiary body will be created on the role of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. The Cali COP was also attended by the most business representatives of any biodiversity COP to date, highlighting how the importance of biodiversity is becoming increasingly recognised in all sectors of society. This included on IAS, with the Task Force on Nature related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) hosted side event resulting in fascinating discussions on how the business sector can contribute to action on IAS - with increased engagement in this space, there will hopefully be more businesses understanding not only how IAS can affect their operations, but what actions they can take to prevent IAS being introduced and establishing and therefore contribute towards Target 6.
Kevin Smith and Aileen Mill
IUCN Secretariat and ISSG Policy Co-lead
INVASIONS BULLETIN
Events and Meetings