COP16: considering the links between biodiversity, agriculture and health

Event 14 October 2024
A CIRAD delegation will be at COP16 Biodiversity in Cali, Colombia, from 21 October to 1 November. The experts involved will be passing on messages based on their experience of the links between biodiversity and agriculture, tropical forest management, ecosystem health and food system sustainability. They will also be advocating for participatory research methods geared towards concrete changes in practices aimed at reconciling those various global issues.

The commitment on the part of IPLCs (Indigenous People and Local Communities) to preserving biodiversity is a fundamental principle of the CBD © V. Gond, CIRAD

The spotlight at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, will be on the operational rollout, across the 196 countries that have signed up to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) adopted at COP15 in Montreal. The countries are expected to present the initial outlines of their national strategy and the actions proposed to bring that strategy into line with the 23 targets set by the KMGBF.

"Radical changes will be needed to reach the ambitious goals set by those 23 targets, which means breaking down the divides between sectors", says CIRAD Deputy Director General in charge of Research and Strategy Sélim Louafi. It also means devoting substantial resources. For instance, COP16 is expected to finalize the mechanisms that will allow States and players to commit to significant transitions aimed at preserving the links between humankind and nature.

Making peace with nature

In announcing "Peace with nature" as the leitmotiv for this COP, the Colombian presidency has set the tone: humans are at the heart of the expected transformations in favour of biodiversity. The governance and procedures of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) set up at COP15 to support the KMGBF will be a core issue in the talks scheduled at COP16, notably to ensure appropriate North-South cashflows. Lastly, capacity building and scientific cooperation have been pinpointed as key ways of reaching the targets.

For Sélim Louafi, who will be heading the CIRAD delegation, "the theme of "Peace with nature" is an opportunity for us to share the impact of our field research with local communities and players aimed at strengthening the links between agriculture, biodiversity and health". The commitment on the part of IPLCs (Indigenous People and Local Communities) to preserving biodiversity is a fundamental principle of the CBD. "Colombia is a country with a wealth of biodiversity, populated by many indigenous communities. It will be particularly determined to ensure that the target of including local communities is broken down into concrete actions", Philippe Vaast, CIRAD Regional Director for Mexico, central America and the Andean Countries, adds.

Monitoring of the international talks, and side-events

CIRAD is an official observer of the CBD, and the delegation will be keeping a close eye on the talks on topics of particular relevance. The experts are due to participate in a range of side-events, to promote a number of key projects involving CIRAD and its partners, notably in Latin America  (TerrAmaz, SASI-SPI, ClimaLoca, IDEAS, or Abrigue, on innovations in terms of agroecology and the circular bioeconomy). They will be contributing to a dozen events led by international partners, to share CIRAD's experiences of action research, and those of its partners, on topics such as the agroecological transition, forest landscape restoration in the Amazon, participatory approaches to build sustainable territories in the Amazon, and sustainable wildlife management.

Agroecology, integrated health approaches and food system transformation

Agroecology, One Health approaches and food system transformation will be the main three responses to global issues that CIRAD will be promoting at COP16, each of which put players and communities at the heart of defining problems and solutions. Its experts will also be suggesting operational mechanisms for fairer access to and sharing of the benefits from the use of biological resources and associated data - the status of sequencing data and other types of resource-related data (known as Digital Sequence Information) is a major topic for negotiation at COP16, which should result in a multilateral mechanism and a dedicated fund to distribute the monetary and non-monetary benefits of research and innovations based on the living world.

Lastly, CIRAD will be advocating in favour of the development of alternatives to pesticides in tropical value chains, encouraging all agricultural R&D players to unite around this objective. It will be presenting its PRETAG (Pesticide Reduction in Tropical Agricultures flagship initiative, which aims to combine inter-disciplinarity, inclusion of all the different value chain players, and impact at producer level by means of three core pillars: agroecological levers for reducing pesticide use, public policy levers, and rules and models for partnerships and financial aspects.

CIRAD's participation in COP16 is intended to: 

  1. Promote the R&D projects led by its research teams and their partners in the global South; 
  2. Inform the talks and policy negotiations by providing sound empirical results relating to key policy issues;
  3. Help the international community to tackle issues relating to global crises, thanks to its concrete knowledge of the range of situations in the countries of the global South. That support is more crucial than ever if we are to build a future in harmony with nature.

CIRAD experts present at COP16: Selim Louafi, Marie-Gabrielle Piketty, René Poccard-Chapuis, Christian Leclerc, Thaura Ghneim-Herrera, Marion Chesnes, Servane Baufumé.