BACKGROUND

Biodiversity is declining at unprecedented rates, which will lead to significant consequences at a global scale. To mitigate and reverse these processes, transformative change is required across scales including a fundamental, system-wide reorganisation in technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values. The implementation of such changes would result in biodiversity being valued, conserved, restored, and wisely used in line with the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity of “Living in harmony with nature”.

This is a crucial time for the global biodiversity agenda, as the achievement of the 2050 Vision will only be possible if a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach is applied. The Kunming-Montreal biodiversity package provides a comprehensive series of mechanisms aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity loss. Among these mechanisms, the monitoring framework for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will help to have a better understanding of progress in implementation over time, which will in turn support the timely identification of areas where action should be strengthened.

The CBD sets out diverse mechanisms to support and enable its implementation. Promoting international technical and scientific cooperation in the field of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity through the appropriate international and national institutions is at the core of the efforts of the international community to advance the biodiversity agenda (CBD, Article 18). The Convention’s Clearing House Mechanism (CHM), including its national CHM network, was established to facilitate this, but needs further strengthening in order to play its full part.

Implementation of multilateral environmental agreements, including CBD, evolves as more and better knowledge and information become available. As such, facilitating technical and scientific cooperation is an essential aspect for decisions under the Convention to be informed by the best available knowledge and advice, which will lead towards the achievement of the 2050 Vision. The Convention operates on the basis of the decisions taken by the Conference of Parties (COP). The technical work, however, is carried out by its subsidiary bodies and supported by more specific inputs provided through working groups, informal advisory groups (IAG) and ad hoc technical expert groups (AHTEG) that are established by COP and mandated to deal with certain topics within a limited period. The breadth of the scope of the Convention, coupled with the complexity of the issues it covers, which continues to increase over time, creates the need for an effective science-policy interface.

CO-OP4CBD will aim to enhance the coordination of the EU support to support the implementation of the Convention, and make more effective use of existing expertise and initiatives.