Nagoya – With land and marine ecosystems around the world under intense pressure from human activities, negotiators from around the world meet in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, to shape and agree on a global strategy and instruments to protect biodiversity that would make the value of biodiversity central all human initiatives and development.
The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, hosted by the Government of Japan takes place from 18 to 29 October 2010 at Nagoya.
Over 15,000 participants representing the 193 Parties and their partners – the highest number ever recorded for such a meeting – will meet to finalize the negotiation on a new Strategic Plan on biodiversity for the period 2011-2020 with a biodiversity vision for 2050. The adoption of a new protocol on access and benefit sharing will be a key instrument at the service of this new biodiversity vision. The agreement will be submitted to the high-level segment of the Conference, to be held with the participation of five Heads of State and 130 ministers of the environment.
“In launching the International Year of Biodiversity the United Nations Secretary General stated earlier this year, that business-as-usual is no longer an option,” said Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “The time to act is now and the place to act is here at the Aichi-Nagoya Biodiversity Summit.”
Japanese Environment Minister Ryo Matsumoto, the President of the meeting said, “It is my greatest honour to host the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties during the International Year of Biodiversity. A number of important issues, including a new global biodiversity target and access and benefit-sharing will be discussed at the meeting. Japan will do its utmost as the President of the Conference of the Parties in order to pass on „only one Earth? to future generations.”
The Nagoya meeting will be the place where stakeholders from all over the world will meet to discuss the ways they will work to meet the biodiversity challenges of the future. Among the important activities:
- A Business and Biodiversity Initiative will be considered at a high level dialogue between chief executive officers of companies and ministers at the margins of Messe Nagoya. More than 500 companies from 13 countries are expected.
- On 26 October, a ministerial meeting will be convened at the initiative of Japan to prepare the Cancun Climate Conference on issues related to sustainable forest management, climate change and biodiversity.
- 200 mayors from around the world will assemble at the City and Biodiversity Initiative to adopt a plan of on action on cities and biodiversity together with An Urban Biodiversity Index.
- A summit on parliamentarians and biodiversity will be convened in partnership with the Globe International (Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment).
At the high-level segment of the meeting, which will begin on 27 October, ministers will have before them the summary of high-level meeting on biodiversity held in New York on 22 September 2010, written by the President of the sixty-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly. Participants to the high-level segment will also have also before them the Geneva Call for Urgent Action on Biodiversity adopted by the 11 ministers of the environment that have hosted or will host a Conference of the Parties. This group, called the Biodiversity-11 Group, has decided to meet on annual basis to provide leadership for the implementation of the new biodiversity strategy.
Notes:
Information on COP 10
- Cop 10 will be held from 18 to 29 October 2010 at the Nagoya Conference Centre, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. See www.cbd.int/cop10 for more information.
- Live and recorded webcasts of the proceedings of the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties can be accessed at: http://webcast.cop10.go.jp/
- Press briefs of the main issues under discussion can be found at: http://www.cbd.int/cop10/meeting/media/
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entering into force in December 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. With 193 Parties, the Convention has near universal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, a supplementary treaty to the Convention, seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. To date, 159 countries and the European Union have ratified the Protocol. The Secretariat of the Convention and its Cartagena Protocol is located in Montreal. For more information, visit www.cbd.int.
Source: CBD.
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