Delegates in informal consultations at the 2018 UN Biodiversity Conference

The current Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which includes the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, is due to expire in 2020. Therefore, the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15), which will be held in 2020 in China, is expected to update the Convention’s strategic plan by adopting a post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

To develop this post-2020 framework, the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, through decision CBD/COP/DEC/14/34, established an Open-ended Intersessional Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (Working Group on Post-2020). As described in the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary and analysis, the Working Group on Post-2020 is composed of representatives of parties to the CBD, and to its Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols, and open to observers, and will meet at least twice during the intersessional period to support the preparation of the framework.

The process adopted by Parties to develop the post-2020 global biodiversity framework contains a set of principles to guide its implementation, an organization of work and sets out a comprehensive consultation process, including provisions for global, regional and thematic consultation meetings.

The first meeting of the Working Group on Post-2020 convenes from 27-30 August 2019, at the UN Office at Nairobi, Kenya, under the leadership of Co-Chairs Francis Ogwal (Uganda) and Basile van Havre (Canada).

The first meeting will be preceded by two workshops on Access and Benefit Sharing and the Nagoya Protocol, and Biosafety and the Cartagena Protocol, organized to ensure relevant elements are included in the Framework.

The Working Group on Post-2020 will consider:

• outcomes of regional and thematic consultations conducted and other contributions received regarding the post-2020 process;
• potential elements of the structure and scope of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework;
• future work programme of the Working Group on Post-2020; and
• tasks that may be allocated to other intersessional bodies and processes, including the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions, and the Subsidiary Body on Implementation.