Curtain Raiser ｜

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The year 2020 marks the conclusion of the current Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which includes the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets. As a result, the October 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference, which will be held under the theme, “Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth,” is expected to adopt a new set of targets—the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF).

The fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD in decision CBD/COP/DEC/14/34 established the Open-ended Intersessional Working Group on the GBF (Working Group on Post-2020). The Working Group (WG) is composed of parties to the CBD, and its Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols, and includes a comprehensive and participatory process involving global, regional and thematic consultative meetings.

The WG was set to meet three times before the 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference. The first meeting of the WG met on 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). This meeting among, other things, discussed elements of the structure and scope of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, and considered the WG’s future work programme. At this first meeting, the WG requested the Co-Chairs and the Executive Secretary, with the oversight of the Bureau, to continue the preparatory process, and to prepare documentation, including a zero draft text of the GBF for consideration by the Working Group at its second meeting. Read the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary and analysis here.

The GBF zero draft text was released in January 2020.

At the second meeting of the WG, delegates will have their first opportunity to comment on the GBF zero draft, which contains three sections: background; introduction to the zero draft, and draft recommendations that the WG may wish to adopt. Annex I contains the zero draft of GBF, and Annex II contains elements of a draft decision on the GBF to be adopted by the CBD COP 15 in October. Two additional addendums contain draft monitoring frameworks for the goals, and targets of the GBF, and a glossary of terms.