Ensuring fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources is key to addressing global inequities in biodiversity-based innovation. In addition, promoting the participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in processes of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is crucial for the integration of their knowledge and customary practices in biodiversity governance. These two issues featured high in the day’s proceedings, with contact groups focusing on DSI and on Article 8(j) (traditional knowledge and IPLCs), among other issues.
Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.
Text-based negotiations continued in multiple settings. Working Group II concluded the first reading of all its 26 agenda items for the CBD, its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing (ABS). Delegates then began consideration of draft decisions in conference room papers, including on plant conservation, the report of the Compliance Committee under the Nagoya Protocol, and the ABS Clearing-House.
Multiple contact groups continued their work. One group began textual negotiations on the revised resource mobilization strategy. Another met over the course of the day to deliberate on tasks in the new programme of work on Article 8(j). The contact group on DSI focused on provisions dealing with disbursements from the DSI fund with two potential approaches: project-based allocations though a country-driven or community-driven process, or direct allocations. The group on biodiversity and health finalized its work, with certain actions to ensure biodiversity and health co-benefits in the global action plan on biodiversity and health remaining in brackets, for consideration by Working Group II. On biodiversity and climate change, delegates addressed a draft decision on interlinkages between the two processes and future work.
As contact groups on risk assessment and risk management of living modified organisms; marine, coastal, and island biodiversity; and capacity building carried on into the night, participants pondered once again on the need for focus and urgency, in view of the magnitude of the tasks ahead.
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All ENB photos are free to use with attribution. For the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference, please use: Photo by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis
Working Group II
David Cooper, CBD Deputy Executive Secretary
Erica Lucero, Argentina
Barbara Engels, Germany
Rita Andorkó, Hungary, speaking on behalf of the EU and its Member States
Clarisse Kehler Siebert, Sweden, and Xiang Gao, China
Luiz Eduardo Andrade de Souza, Brazil
Working Group II Chair Hesiquio Benítez Díaz, Mexico
Peter Deupmann, CBD Secretariat
Cartagena Protocol MOP 11 Secretary Wadzanayi Goredema-Mandivenyi
View of the dais during Working Group II
Angela Lozan, Moldova
Faisal bin Shuraim Al-Shuraima, Saudi Arabia
From L-R: Working Group II Chair Hesiquio Benítez Díaz, Mexico; Cartagena Protocol MOP 11 Secretary Wadzanayi Goredema-Mandivenyi; and Peter Deupmann, CBD Secretariat
Clarissa Souza Della Nina, Brazil
Cléoface Landry Mabessimo, Central African Republic
Contact Groups
View of the room during the Contact Group on DSI
Contact Group on resource mobilization Co-Chairs Patrick Luna, Brazil, and Ines Verleye, Belgium
Inonge Kwenda Mweene, CBD Secretariat
Corina Sarli, Argentina
Erin Marchington, Canada
Contact Group on DSI Co-Chairs William Lockhart, UK, and Lactitia Tshitwamulomoni, South Africa
From L-R: Sivendra Michael, Fiji; María Claudia Vélez Crismatt, Colombia; and Camila Zepeda Lizama, Mexico
Maya Hunt, New Zealand
Karin Zaunberger, EU
From L-R: Q”apaj Conde Choque, CBD Secretariat; and Contact Group on Article 8(j) Co-Chairs Lucy Mulenkei, Indigenous Information Network, and Pernilla Malmer, Sweden
View of the room during the Contact Group on climate change
View of the room during the Contact Group on Article 8(j)
View of the room during the Contact Group on capacity-building and development
Contact Group on risk assessment and risk management Co-Chairs Marja Ruohonen-Lehto, Finland, and Martha Kandawa-Schulz, Namibia
Around the Venue
Contact Group on resource mobilization Co-Chairs Patrick Luna, Brazil, and Ines Verleye, Belgium, relaxing before the start of the Contact Group
Current and former Heads of the CBD Secretariat Biosafety Unit. From L-R: Cyrie Sendashonga; Charles Gbedemah; Manoela Pessoa de Miranda; Kathryn Garforth; and Wadzanayi Goredema-Mandivenyi