Delegate to UN biodiversity convention move from agreement to action completing COP15 in Kenya

By Samuel Ogunsona

Delegates to the United Nations (UN) Biodiversity Convention have moved from agreement in Montreal, Canada,to action in Nairobi, Kenya, with the election of chairpersons for its subsidiary bodies and the Bureau.

The resumed sessions of the second part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), was held from 19-20 October in Nairobi, Kenya and monitored by Irohinoodua.

Speaking on behalf of COP 15 president Huang Runqiu, Zhou Guomei said, “Adoption of the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, is a victory for multilateralism with the United Nations at its core, and a victory for global biodiversity governance. With the joint efforts of all parties, the COP 15 has come to a successful conclusion.”

David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said: “The closure of COP 15 and the election of officers shows that governments have moved from agreement to action. The historic and ambitious Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is well and truly on the way to implementation.”

During the UN biodiversity conference held in December 2022 (COP15), delegates were unable to finalize the Central and Eastern European (CEE) nominations for the Bureau. Following consultations, it was decided to suspend the meeting, so that the term of the current Bureau is extended until COP 15 can be resumed in Nairobi, Kenya.

Elections were held at the resumed session of the COP and COP-MOPs of the Convention and its Protocols.

Governments nominated and elected the following members of the bureau for COP 15, who would serve a term from the end of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity until the close of the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties: Hlobsile Sikhosana (Eswatini), Abderahman Zino Izourar (Algeria), Krishneel Nand (Fiji), Somaly Chan (Cambodia), Gillian Guthrie (Jamaica), María Teresa Becerra Ramírez (Colombia), Norbert Bärlocher (Switzerland) , Eric Schauls (Luxembourg), Teona Karchava (Georgia) and Angela Lozan (Republic of Moldova).

Elections for substitutes for any elected Bureau member who is from a country that is not a Party to the Nagoya Protocol were held: Moustafa Fouda (Egypt), to substitute Ms. Siko (Eswatini), Sino Tohrizoda (Tajikistan), to substitute Ms. Karchava (Georgia), Jesus Guerra (Cuba), to substitute Ms. Guthrie (Jamaica) for matters relating to the Nagoya Protocol; Corina Sarli (Argentina), to substitute Ms. Vilardy (Colombia) for matters relating to the Nagoya Protocol. Ms. Senka Barudanović (Bosnia and Herzogovina) was elected as Chair of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and Mr Shri Reddy (India) was elected as Chair of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation, both for a term of office commencing at the end of the fifteenth meeting and ending at the close of the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties. As Bosnia Herzogovina is not a Party to the Nagoya Protocol, Jan Plesnik (Czechia) was elected substitute for these issues.

The date and venue for the meeting of the next UN Biodiversity Conference, which will include COP 16, COP-MOP-11 and COP-MOP-5, are still to be determined. Türkiye, which was originally expected to hold the meeting, announced withdrawal of its offer to serve this role, due to force majeure, resulting from the disastrous earthquakes earlier this year.

France, the UK, Switzerland and Spain are all possible replacement destinations for the conference.