COP16 | Agriculture and biodiversity, a love-hate thing

Expert view 18 November 2024
A dozen or so experts from CIRAD took part in the Biodiversity COP16 that ended on 2 November, enabling them to pass on key messages based on their experiences and action research projects. It is vital that CIRAD contribute to this major event, as agriculture is seen as the main cause of the massive decline in species worldwide. We look back its participation, at the interface between science and policy.
Session in Amazonia room, the main negotiating room at Biodiversity COP16, at the Cali Conference Centre (Colombia) © S. Baufumé, CIRAD

Session in Amazonia room, the main negotiating room at Biodiversity COP16, at the Cali Conference Centre (Colombia) © S. Baufumé, CIRAD

While agricultural activities are now seen as the main culprit in terms of biodiversity erosion, this has not always been the case. For Sélim Louafi, CIRAD Deputy Director General in charge of Research and Strategy and specialist in the links between biodiversity and agriculture, "it is vital that CIRAD attend the Biodiversity COPs, to show how agriculture and food systems can become levers for addressing various global crises, particularly the biodiversity crisis, and for defending and tackling the specific issues facing farming systems and biodiversity in the global South".

Are biodiversity, agriculture, climate change and health part of the same battle?

"Our participation enabled us to present paths of action to contribute to the Global Biodiversity Framework ", Servane Baufumé, international affairs and research capitalization officer at CIRAD, stresses. Those proposals are the result of CIRAD's action research operations in a wide range of partnership situations and ecosystems. "Our specificities make us uniquely qualified to address issues surrounding agriculture, biodiversity, climate change and health in a transverse, interdisciplinary way."

Sharing the benefits of genetic resource use more fairly…

As a panellist at various side events, the CIRAD delegation made itself heard concerning the sharing of the benefits of using genetic resources drawn from nature, and associated data, particularly Digital Sequence Information (DSI), within the framework of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Those resources, which are used by research institutes, pharmaceutical, agricultural, cosmetics and biotechnology firms, often come from countries in the tropical zone (which are home to the major share of global biodiversity), but primarily benefit developed countries. While the Nagoya Protocol has regulated "physical" access to and use of biological resources for the past decade, there was no concerted global framework covering intangible resources such as DSI to date.

… thanks to the Cali Fund

This was a major topic at the COP, and the talks resulted in the creation of a multilateral global "Cali Fund" aimed at sharing the benefits of DSI use. Private firms are strongly encouraged to pay a set percentage of their turnover (0.1%) or profits (1%) into the fund if they develop products using  DSIs available in open-access databases. Academic players are exempt from contributing, but are still concerned by the agreement on DSI.

As Servane Baufumé says, "At CIRAD, we welcome this financial mechanism, which recognizes the importance of making the private sector contribute. However, we don't think it is entirely satisfactory. Rather than merely focusing on market value, efforts need to cover all the non-monetary levers that allow the various types of players to share the benefits of using resources and DSI. This concerns CIRAD directly, and in our research projects and partnerships, we include terms and conditions in favour of equity, impact and benefit sharing (participatory engineering, balanced governance, knowledge and capacity sharing, and so on)."

Could agriculture and food systems be levers for a solution?

CIRAD was a co-founder of the "Montpellier Process", and the delegation took part in the seven events organized by the group at the COP. The process makes strong proposals for tackling the current combination of crises (biodiversity, climate, food systems and health) in a concerted way, based on local and territorial experiences. The aim is to inform global and multilateral policymaking, in line with an intersectoral rationale and backed by a wide range of knowledge systems.

Sélim Louafi at one of the events organized by the Montpellier Process © S. Baufumé, CIRAD

Sélim Louafi at one of the events organized by the Montpellier Process © S. Baufumé, CIRAD

In relation to this, Sélim Louafi also made the opening speech at a specific session during Food Day, co-organized by the CBD and FAO, to outline the role of CIRAD and the Montpellier Process in transforming food systems.

Supporting biodiversity by means of agroecology

The CIRAD delegation also passed on key messages about crop biodiversity use, and made proposals for action in favour of finding alternatives to pesticides in the farming systems of the global South. Its participation in various side events hone the spotlight on its many operations to support biodiversity by introducing agroecological innovations in food systems, such as the activities under the EU DeSIRA programme.

Community management of protected areas

Through the different events, the delegation explained CIRAD's approaches and expertise in terms of forest landscape restoration and community management, territory health, and also protected areas and zones that, while not officially being protected areas, guarantee effective long-term diversity conservation (Other Effective Conservation Measures, or OECMs).

"Future talks will have to adapt the different solutions better to the range of different contexts, particularly between the global North and South", says Christian Leclerc, an ecological anthropologist with CIRAD and co-coordinator of CIRAD's Biodiversity priority research topic. "This is a more specific approach of which CIRAD already has substantial experience."

In Guatemala, logging is conserving forests

Guatemala’s community forest concessions are a success in every respect. The forest is being conserved more effectively by indigenous communities practising sustainable logging than in neighbouring protected areas. As the 16th Biodiversity COP in Cali (Colombia) draws to a close, we shine the spotlight on this inspiring example.

 

196 countries at the sickbed of biodiversity, a mixed bag of results

Almost every country worldwide was at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Global Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) in Colombia, which ended on 2 November. As is often the case with multilateral summits, the talks produced a mixed bag of results.
The advances included:
- there is now a permanent group to represent indigenous peoples and local communities within the CBD and the role of people of African descent in preserving biodiversity is officially recognized.
- the "Cali Fund" was created to guarantee that the benefits of the use of genetic resources drawn from nature by industry are shared.
- a decision was made providing a framework for strengthening coordination and synergies between international and national efforts in terms of biodiversity and climate.

The failures, at least for the time being:
- the lack of an agreement on global funding of the Global Biodiversity Framework. There were high hopes of an agreement, notably on the part of countries in the global South, in order to receive biodiversity funding from developed countries.
- The non-adoption for the moment of the GBF monitoring and assessment framework, which was intended to give countries a methodology and indicators for demonstrating their progress towards the various targets, and offer a mechanism for regularly assessing progress on a national and global level.

There will probably be an exceptional meeting of the various countries concerned sometime next year, with a view to finalizing the discussions not completed in Cali, and in two years' time for the next round of talks at COP17, to be presided by Armenia.

See also