DOs & DON'Ts for a successful Global Biodiversity Framework
CBD Alliance members put together a check list of what to DO and what NOT to do when agreeing on the new CBD Global Biodiversity Framework. This is important for an ambitious and successful decade of biodiversity action.
DOs1. DO HAVE STRONG PRINCIPLE-BASED FOUNDATION
Recognize the principles on which the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and its implementation shall be based: the precautionary principle, respect for human rights and indigenous rights, a gender and intergenerational perspective, justice and equity, benefit sharing, respect for all knowledge systems, and the recognition of the intrinsic value of nature. Make sure polluters are held responsible for the damage they cause, both towards nature and affected communities. Ensure the GBF complies with the founding principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Rio Conventions overall.
2. DO MAKE SURE WE LIVE WITHIN BOUNDARIES
Define the limits of production and consumption that depend on, and extraction of resources that destroy, biodiversity. Ensure targets add up to living well and equitably within those limits. Make sure the Convention's objective of sustainable use of biodiversity gets honoured.
3. DO INCLUDE A RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH
Protect environmental defenders, as well as the ecosystems they defend. Ensure Human Rights are not violated in the implementation of any biodiversity measures.
Recognise that Biodiversity loss undermines people's ability to enjoy many human rights, including human health and a healthy environment. Make ecocide punishable, and recognise the right of ecosystems not to be destroyed. Guarantee, protect, and amplify the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), providing the enabling conditions to protect their territories, ecosystems and biodiversity, and ensure equitable distribution of the benefits of natural resources. A rights-based approach should under no circumstances imply rights for corporations or individuals to exploit or consume resources unsustainably.
4. DO HAVE FULL AND EQUAL PARTICIPATION FOR IPLCS AND OTHER RIGHTS-HOLDERS
Put in place effective mechanisms to ensure full participation in all decision-making processes regarding biodiversity, and any projects related to its conservation and restoration. Place special emphasis on participation by those affected by its loss - such as IPLCs, peasants and small scale food producers, small scale fishers, women, and youth - at all levels, local, national and international. Address power imbalances in participatory processes. Guarantee full access to information for rights-holders regarding all projects that could possibly damage biodiversity. Guarantee Free Prior and Informed Consent and the right to oppose projects on principle.
5. DO ADRESS THE ROOT CAUSES AND INDIRECT DRIVERS OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS
The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services adopted in 2019 by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) tells us an important root cause of biodiversity loss is the current economic system of unsustainable use and the destruction of biodiversity resources by all economic sectors. This is also linked to other indirect drivers, such as unsustainable consumption/production patterns, particularly of the rich. Root causes have to be addressed systemically. As a first step, set up mechanisms that address them, such as the Whole Government Approach. Adopt regulations obliging multinational corporations based in their countries to apply the highest national and/or international standards for the environment and human rights in operations by themselves or subsidiary companies in third countries.
6. DO ADRESS THE DIRECT DRIVERS OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS
Do address the direct drivers that were identified by the IPBES global assessment report. Set up work and coordination programs about these aspects of the direct drivers that correspond to or impact on the realm of the CBD. The most powerful drivers are industrial-scale fisheries and intensive agriculture. The CBD has the competence and the responsibility to regulate the biodiversity impacts of these sectors, and propose biodiversity consistent ways to do so.
7. DO ADRESS EQUITY AND CROSS-BORDER IMPACTS
Address the impacts on biodiversity and equity of resource extraction and production of commodities across country boundaries and regions and along supply chains, the so-called telecoupled impacts. Reflect them in national reports. Set up legislation that reduces and ultimately eliminates these adverse impacts. Make sure every country both contributes and receives their fair share. Those countries with an excessive historical and per capita environmental footprint shall reduce it to fair levels for everybody.
8. DO APPLY A WHOLE GOVERNMENT APPROACH AS THE MAIN TOOL IN MAINSTREAMING
Strengthen mainstreaming of biodiversity in all sectors, as an integral part of the framework, with a structure or mechanism that ensures its effective implementation in the long run. The main instrument in mainstreaming needs to be a Whole Government Approach, to ensure that every part of the government implements the GBF aspects within their competence, by setting up stringent regulations, ideally overseen at Head of State level, ensuring overall policy coherence. Poor governance and corruption must be addressed.
9. DO ASSUME A COORDINATING ROLE WITHIN THE UN
Enable the Convention on Biological Diversity to actively oversee all issues related to biodiversity and its destruction, including those related to root causes and drivers.
Establish platforms to communicate the impact the decisions of other UN spaces are having on biodiversity, and what level of response is required. Follow up on progress.
10. DO ENSURE THERE’S NO FINANCE FOR BIODIVERSITY DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES
Identify, and completely phase out and redirect ALL perverse incentives including subsidies for industrial livestock and aquaculture production, and set up a clear timeline and verifiable sub-targets to ensure implementation. Redirect such incentives to activities that are protective of ecosystems. Generate regulation that leads to divestment from activities that cause ecosystem destruction.
11. DO PROVIDE PUBLIC FINANCE FOR BIODIVERSITY
All countries shall have a national budget sufficient to address biodiversity conservation. Developed countries shall contribute to the budgets of developing countries through the mobilisation of new and additional public financial resources that are secure and stable so that biodiversity programs can be sustained over time. Developed countries shall set aside a sufficient budget for this (at least x% of the national budget), which shall be revised and adjusted as new information emerges.
12. DO HAVE PROPER CONSERVATION PLANS AND AREAS THAT DELIVER FOR BIODIVERSITY
Make sure all conservation and restoration efforts are oriented to full ecosystem functionality and resilience. Specific measures oriented at just one aspect of ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, shall not be counted as ecosystem conservation or restoration. Ensure the right conditions for all species -from keystone species to insects and microorganisms- to thrive, and act on threats against them. Set up strategies for protection of wildlife, including the development of a culture of true coexistence. Properly manage Area Based Conservation, including by recognising and supporting territories and areas conserved by indigenous peoples and local communities (ICCAs/territories of life) wherever possible. Respect the knowledge of IPLCs, and do not exclude them from their customary territories and areas. Develop measures to protect all types of ecosystems. Ensure that together they preserve a healthy biosphere. Ensure they are sufficiently big and connected to thrive, and cope with the effects of climate change.
13. DO TAKE CARE OF BIODIVERSITY IN ALL AREAS
Set up specific policies and measures to ensure that biodiversity is well preserved in all areas, including those intensely used by humans, such as agricultural and urban areas. This includes setting standards for sustainable use, designing green areas, and eliminating harmful pollution.
14. DO STRENGTHEN IMPLEMENTATION
Strengthen National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), with standardized formats and related National Reports, in line with the structure of the GBF, in order to enhance comparison and transparency. Ensure NBSAPs:
• are built with participation of all sectors of the population
• are regularly updated, ensuring integration of the GBF within 2 years
• include roadmaps and milestones for implementation
• address all the biodiversity protection requirements
• involve all relevant ministries, ensuring they protect biodiversity in their sectors
• are implemented at all levels, national and local
• contribute in a fair and equitable way to the need to live well within planetary boundaries
• address biodiversity destruction caused by national consumption patterns and business in third countries, thereby implementing article 3 of the convention
• provide strong support to community conservation initiatives.
15. DO SET UP ACCOUNTABILITY AND COMPLIANCE & ENFORCEMENT MEASURES
Include proper and effective monitoring, review and accountability systems, harmonised at CBD level, to make sure implementation is effective. These monitoring systems shall also include critical review by non-State public interest actors and include implementation of Article 20 of the CBD. In the case of a) failure to establish a NBSAP b) inadequacy of the NBSAP to address the GBF and biodiversity issues or c) non-compliance with the NBSAP, enforcement mechanisms shall be established and applied, taking into account the reasons for non-compliance by developing countries and providing the support they may need.
16. DO SET UP TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
Establish a mechanism that: scans the horizon for all new technologies being developed that could have detrimental impacts on biodiversity; carries out risk assessments to understand the implications, assesses direct and indirect negative impacts and verifies claims of benefits; develops risk assessment guidance and sets up regulations and accountability mechanisms based on the precautionary approach
17. DO ENSURE CONTINUITY & IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CARTAGENA AND NAGOYA PROTOCOL
Both Protocols have to be an integral part of the GBF, including implementation work plans. Make sure all genomic and nucleic acid technologies are fully covered, under the Convention and the Protocols, according to where each aspect fits best. Ensure that biodiversity as well as human rights are protected and guaranteed in the use of Digital Sequence Information, including benefit sharing.
18. DO PROMOTE AGROECOLOGY AND OTHER COMMUNITY BASED SOLUTIONS
Study, promote, create enabling conditions and reduce hurdles for the implementation of food sovereignty, agroecology, small-scale family farming and fisheries, in ways that also enhance inherent agricultural biodiversity within peasant seeds, livestock breeds and local fisheries, thereby sustaining the resilience of agroecosystem.
19. DO PROHIBIT ANY MAJOR DISTURBANCE OF NATURE
Prohibit any process or project that causes major disruption to ecosystems. Amongst activities to be banned are: mountaintop removal mining, deep-sea mining, arctic drilling, fracking, large-scale cutting of primary forests, drainage of peatlands etc. Also gradual processes with significant cumulative effects shall be banned. Urgently assess development plans for infrastructure.
DON'Ts
1. DON’T ALLOW FOR ANY REGRESSION
Make sure the new GBF is stronger than the current strategic plan, includes at least all the content and ambition of all Aichi targets, ensures continuity in its implementation, and shows no reduction of ambition in any single area.
2. DON’T BUILD THE GBF ON “VOLUNTARY” COMMITMENTS
Each party must contribute their fair share to make sure the world lives within planetary boundaries, and this cannot be on a voluntary basis. A scenario that would leave a gap between what is planned and the outcomes we need, and hoping it can later be “ratcheted up” is not acceptable. The GBF should be based on binding rules, not voluntary commitments. All this means we need 2030 targets whose ambition levels are close to what is required to fulfil the 2050 vision.
3. DON’T OVERSIMPLIFY THE GBF
The GBF must be a coherent policy framework, and needs to respond to all the necessary levels of complexity which are required. Focussing on simplicity would run the risk of omitting many important aspects. The GBF is not a communication exercise but a framework for action. Once it is decided upon, communication experts can promote it to the relevant audiences.
4. DON’T SET AN APEX TARGET
Biodiversity is immensely complex, and cannot be captured in one –or even a few- overarching metrics and related targets. Trying to do so will by definition mean countries fail to pay attention to other important aspects, and may even lead them to counterproductive decisions for biodiversity.
5. DON’T ALLOW CONFLICT OF INTEREST TO UNDERMINE THE GBF NOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION
Don’t allow stakeholders that have objectives that run contrary to the objectives of the convention to influence CBD decisions. Most businesses and corporations, as well as their representative sectoral organisations represent interests related to profit-maximisation, not biodiversity interests.
6. DON’T TRUST VOLUNTARY CERTIFICATION OR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The cumulative effort required to save biodiversity goes far beyond what voluntary commitments and/or certification can offer. These have also been used to convince decision makers not to implement strict regulatory controls. Set up a monitoring and accountability framework for the private sector, including verification mechanisms for certification and binding rules for disclosure of information, in order to ensure public scrutiny of such activities.
7. DON’T COMMERCIALISE BIODIVERSITY, MAKE IT MARKET-DEPENDENT, OR ALLOW OFFSETTING
Do not include: offsetting, “no net loss”, net positive or “average" gain, or Naturebased Solutions. The promise of restoration should never be used to allow destruction elsewhere. Conserving existing natural habitats should always have priority. Do not allow a price to be put on nature, or create any markets for biodiversity offsetting.
8. DON’T EMPLOY ANY TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS TO BIODIVERSITY LOSS OR THE CLIMATE CRISIS, WHICH MAY PRESENT NEW THREATS TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
Further technological development cannot tackle the root causes of the environmental crisis. Indeed, many technologies risk further endangering the environment and should be tightly regulated or rejected. High-risk technologies such as geoengineering, (including Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage - BECCS), Terminator Technology, Synthetic Biology, and Gene Drives, for example, should not be deployed.
9. DON’T INCLUDE ANY TARGETS THAT CALL FOR AN INCREASE IN PRODUCTION
Increase in production is not a competence of the CBD. Even if an increase in production of food were needed (after reducing food waste, and developing better distribution measures, etc), this would be the competence of the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN Committee on Food Security, and the CBD would need to maintain oversight to ensure that this is done in a sustainable way.
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