The Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development and president of COP16, Susana Muhamadhighlighted this Saturday that the biodiversity conference that ended this morning in Cali “it was from the people“and in it they were taken”background decisions“
“This was the people’s COP, which installed the ‘Peace with Nature’ coalition and managed to mobilize a large movement (of attendees), perhaps the most important education campaign that Colombia has had in its history and the mobilization for life most important thing we have ever done. Seeing so many people excited about biodiversity is really moving“Muhamad said.
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Among the achievements of the COP is the approval by consensus of the recognition of the contribution of the indigenous, afro-descendant and local communities to the care and preservation of biodiversity.
“The negotiation achieved the approval of the subsidiary body, a permanent body for indigenous peoples and local communities in the convention (and) the recognition of Afro-descendant peoples, another objective of the Colombian negotiation delegation“he explained.
COP16
Likewise, COP16 approved one of the most difficult issues: the creation of a global fund to establish payments for the use of digitized genetic sequences, called the Cali Fundwhich will also guarantee the distribution of the benefits obtained from biodiversity.
“The historic Cali Fund (will serve) to collect contributions from private companies on the use of genetic resources when they are in digital databases, this is an innovative and very important mechanism“Muhamad highlighted.
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The great debt left by COP16 is precisely its most pointed discussion: financing and mobilization of resources.
“The financial strategy and resources were no longer approved and the monitoring framework was not approved either, which leaves some challenges for the convention and it is time to begin to correct them. The discussion was always very polarized“added the president of the conference.
COP16
A very festive meeting
Despite what was not approved in the discussions, Muhamad expressed his satisfaction with what, he considered, was “a historic COP for the biodiversity agreement“
“One million visits to the Green Zone (where NGOs, entrepreneurs and social movements met), and in addition to 40,000 people involved in academic activities, discussions, and that without counting the cultural agenda“, he stated.
The minister added: “Biodiversity will raise its profile in the face of the issue of decarbonization and climate change, and this was a COP of the people, with record attendance (…) with substantive decisions, it definitely raised the political profile, including the visit of the heads of State, foreign ministers, of the more than 115 ministers who were here and the international delegations“.
EFE
