Convention on Biodiversity (CBD): Prologue to Cartagena, Nagoya, Aichi, COP-11

1. What is UNEP?
2. Earth Summit?
3. What is the connection between UNEP and Earth Summit?
4. Kids of Earth Summit
5. What is CBD?
6. What does CBD want?
7. Objective#1: Protect Biodiversity
8. Where is the money?
9. How does CBD work?
10. Mock Questions

What is UNEP?

• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• An organization under United Nations. (1972)
• The United Nations General Assembly elects the UNEP governing council members.
• HQ= Nairobi, Kenya
• Two important terms associated with UNEP

Earthwatch	UNEP keeps constant surveillance on environment, through this  program.
Global Environment Outlook (GEO)	UNEP publishes this report.5th such report (GEO-5) released in 2012.

Earth Summit?

• Conference held in Rio-De-Janerio, Brazil in 1992
• Formal name: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)

What is the connection between UNEP and Earth Summit?

• In the late 80s, the UNEP members decided we should have some sort of international agreement to protect biodiversity.
• They worked on a draft Agreement. (Nairobi Conference)
• In 1992, when Earth Summit was held in Rio, Brazil, these UNEP people put that draft-agreement on the table, and requested various countries to sign it.
• This signed international agreement is known as “Convention on Biodiversity.” (Official name =Convention on Biological Diversity)

Kids of Earth Summit

• Earth summit, 1992 gave birth to many things. But three important kids were

Mission	Earth Summit’s result
Protect Biodiversity	CBD
Reverse Climate Change	UNFCCC
Promote Sustainable Development	Agenda 21

As the year progressed, these three kids (CBD, UNFCC, Agenda 21) grew up, had their own kids.

Mission	Earth Summit’s result	Their kids
Protect Biodiversity	CBD	Aichi Targets Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources
Reverse Climate Change	UNFCCC	Kyoto Protocol Copenhagen Accord
Promote Sustainable Development	Agenda 21	RIO+20

We can summarize this in an equation and a Chart
Earth Summit=> CBD (Cartagena+ Aichi+Nagoya) +UNFCCC (Kyoto+Copanheggan) +Agenda 21 (RIO+20)

Once ^this is clear, observe the following timeline to see the ‘bigger picture’ of how every piece fits into the puzzle.

Click to Enlarge

What is CBD?

• Convention =International Agreement.
• Convention on Biodiversity is the brainchild of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• HQ= Montreal, Canada. It works under UNEP.

What does CBD want?

Convention on Biodiversity wants three things and it leads to three more things.

Wants to	Leads to
Protect biodiversity	COP meetings, Aichi Targets.
Safe use of bio-technology	Cartagena Biosafety Protocol
Stop unfair use of Genetic resources	Nagoya Genetic Resources Protocol

Objective#1: Protect Biodiversity

• You already know what is biodiversity, why is it important, what is in-situ, ex-situ. If you don’t know those basic things, visit www.Mrunal.org/enb, read the earlier articles, download the NOS studyresources and then come back.
• Welcome back. Convention on Biodiversity, as the name suggests = has something to do with biodiversity.

CBD accepts/wants following things

1. biological diversity is a common concern of humankind.
2. States have sovereign rights over their own biological resources.
3. But at the same time, States are responsible for conserving their biological diversity.
4. Therefore, States are required to create National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP).
5. Sustainable use of biological diversity =important for food security, health and other needs of public.
6. Biological diversity is being significantly reduced by certain human activities.
7. But We’ll protect biodiversity via in-situ and ex-situ methods.
8. We recognize vital role of women and NGOs in protecting biodiversity.
9. Our rich members (developed countries) will give money and technology to the middle class and poor members (developing nations and Least developed countries)
10. We’ll give special attention to the least developed countries (L.D.C.) and small island States, because they’re more vulnerable.
11. We’ll also give special attention to developing countries, especially those with arid and semi- arid zones, coastal and mountainous areas.
12. + add ‘public awareness, sensitization, and other diplomatic-legal crap and you’ve enogh points to fil up the answersheet’.

Where is the money?

• To fund various projects, activities under CBD, you need truckload of cash.
• This cash comes through an organization named as Global Environment Facility (GEF).
• GEF gets money from world bank, UN, various (rich) nations and trust organization, companies etc.
• GEF gives that money to finance many environment related activies including

1. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
2. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

How does CBD work?

• Convention = international agreement.
• Legally speaking, “agreement” involves two or more “parties”.
• So CBD doesn’t have “members” it has “parties”: rich parties on one side, middle class and poor parties on the other.
• These parties meet at regular interval. These meetings are called Conference of Parties (COP).
• In these Meetings, the leaders, delegates consume desi-liquor (to provide sustainable livelihood support to local communities) and evaluate their past achievements; lay down future course of action, money and technology transfer to third world.
• Each party has one vote. Decision taken by majority vote. These meetings led to Cartagena Biosafety Protocol (2000).
• 10^th Such meeting was held at Nagoya, Japan (2010). It led to Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources + Aichi Targets.
• 11^th such meeting (COP-11) was held in Hyderabad, India in 2012

Each of them (Cartagena, Nagoya, Aichi, COP-11) will be discussed in future article.

For the whole Archive on Environment and Biodiversity (EnB) related articles, including RIO+20, UNFCCC, Kyoto etc. visit this page: www.Mrunal.org/enb

Mock Questions

Q. Which of the following statements are correct?

1. Parties of UNFCCC are required to create National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP).
2. Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols are part of Agenda 21.

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. Both
4. None

Q. which of the following is incorrectly matched?

Nagoya	Genetic Resources
CITES	Sustainable Development
Copenhagen Accord	Climate Change

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. Only 2 and 3
4. Only 1 and 3

Q. Which of the following is correctly matched

Agenda 21	Biohazard
Cartagena Protocol	Biosafety
Aichi Targets	Biodiversity

1. Only 1 and 2
2. Only 2 and 3
3. Only 1 and 3
4. All of them.

Q. Which of the following statements are correct?

1. Headquarter of CBD is in Kenya
2. Headquarter of UNEP is in Switzerland

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. Both
4. None

Q. Which of the following is correct chronologically (old to new)

1. Aichi Target, Earth Summit, Convention on Biodiversity, Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
2. Earth Summit, Convention on Biodiversity, Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Aichi Target
3. Convention on Biodiversity, Earth Summit, Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Aichi Target
4. None of above.