Highlights and images for 16 March 2022

On a very busy Wednesday, accompanied by increasing efficiency, the Geneva Biodiversity Conference continued its work with five contact group meetings throughout the day and into the late night.

To dive deeper, read the full daily Earth Negotiations Bulletin report.

In the morning, a contact group under the Working Group on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (WG2020) addressed targets related to meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing. Delegates successfully concluded the first round of negotiations on five targets of the post-2020 framework, focusing on:

• ensuring the sustainable use of species;
• addressing the sustainable management of agriculture, aquaculture, and forestry;
• nature’s contributions to the regulation of air quality, quality and quantity of water, and protection from hazards and extreme events;
• increasing the area of, access to, and benefits from green and blue spaces in urban areas; and
• measures at the global level to facilitate access to genetic resources, and to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.

The contact group Co-Leads, Gabriele Obermayr (Austria) and Gillian Guthrie (Jamaica), will prepare a non-paper to guide further discussions.

Contact groups established under the subsidiary bodies met in the afternoon and evening. Two contact groups under the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) focused on biodiversity and health, and biodiversity and agriculture. Regarding biodiversity and agriculture, progress was made on a draft plan of action 2020-2030 for the International Initiative for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Soil Biodiversity. The contact group on biodiversity and health continued its deliberations in the evening, discussing key elements of the proposed action plan.

Two contact groups under the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) addressed capacity building and development in the afternoon, and reporting, assessment, and review of implementation in the evening. Regarding capacity-building, parties addressed a conference room paper (CRP) and made progress on lifting a number of brackets from the text. Divergences remain, however, and discussions will continue. The contact group on reporting and review met in the evening, continuing its discussions on addressing parts of the draft recommendation relating to indicators in national reporting, national planning, and global assessments.

Five side events took place at lunchtime, focusing on:

• ways to enhance planning, reporting, and review mechanisms;
• saving coral reefs through the global biodiversity framework (GBF);
• Indigenous Peoples’ voices on GBF’s Target 3 (conservation of at least 30% globally of land areas and sea areas);
• key results of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network’s Global Youth Consultation Process 2020-21; and
• marine biodiversity, fisheries, and the Ocean in the post-2020 era.