COP16: Expertise France mobilised for biodiversity protection

Published on October 28 2024

Biodiversity
Sustainable development

The 16th meeting of the UN Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be held in Cali, Colombia, from 21 October to 1 November 2024. This COP is being held two years after the signing of the Kunming-Montreal framework agreement (COP15, 2021) which includes plans to protect 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030. In this article, Expertise France reviews its action to protect biodiversity.

The issue at stake for COP16 is to enable the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework. There are two specific issues involved: 1) finalising the monitoring framework for the COP15 agreement and the arrangements for the first global stocktake; 2) mobilising the financing required for the implementation of the framework. This COP will be based on five main themes: biodiversity finance, an update and assessment of the level of ambition of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), the implementation and accountability mechanism, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources.

Expertise France will be at the Biodiversity COP once again this year, including at the European Union Pavilion and through the organisation of about 20 side events. Its involvement is fully consistent with French initiatives and priorities, and in line with the issues addressed by AFD Group.

In AFD Group, capitalising on a strategic position

Expertise France was already involved in the negotiation process for the Global Biodiversity Framework back in 2018. It has since been taking action to facilitate the definition and adoption of a transformative and ambitious agreement involving all the stakeholders (civil society, including the platforms of young people, women, local communities and indigenous peoples, the private sector, finance, local and regional governments) through the projects Post 2020 Biodiversity Framework EU Support and BIODEV2030.

Building on these successes, in 2021, the agency established a structure to reflect the growing importance of this theme, developing a specific range of services. This process has been combined with a significant increase in the number of international technical experts deployed to partner organisations on these issues.

Since the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework at the CBD COP15 in December 2022, Expertise France has thus stepped up its support for the effective implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework in its countries of operation. Its efforts have focused on the operational translation of the agreement with support at three levels:

For the implementation of the key targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, including “30x30” of protected areas, the restoration of degraded ecosystems, the sustainable use of land and sea, biodiversity mainstreaming in sectors, and the fight against pollution
For the definition and update of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)
For reporting on and monitoring the implementation of the framework at the local, national and global levels (global stocktake), as part of the accountability framework and including through knowledge sharing, scientific and technological cooperation, communication and education

A wide range of tools and innovative approaches

Working closely with its partners, the agency takes a wide range of action (cooperation projects, grants, technical assistance for policy-based loans, deployment of technical experts to partner institutions) to address their needs, scale up pilot initiatives, and accelerate the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework at the local, national, regional, and global levels.

Expertise France is working towards the sustainable management of the world’s largest forest basins, for example, in Papua New Guinea, with the European Union, through the Forestry, Climate Change and Biodiversity (FCCB) project with €33.5 million of financing. It is also working with France, following the visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, whose commitment in the context of the Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) and One Forest Summit (2023) has led to programmes to support the Government of Papua New Guinea and local communities. The objective is to extend terrestrial and marine protected areas and the governance of the forestry sector and value chains. These programmes are financed by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and AFD.

These commitments have also resulted in the agency opening an office in the country shortly and the deployment of an International Technical Expert (ITE) to the Government.

In addition, Expertise France has developed “green and blue” approaches to contribute, in a horizontal manner, to the protection of forests and oceans.

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