Challenges and opportunities for governing viable global commons: The Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

This workshop is open to all interested parties. No registration is necessary.

Biodiversity may be considered a global common, such as the polar regions, oceans, the atmosphere, or the outer space.  These commons are highly threatened with degradation as a result of collective human activity.

In December 2022, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the long-awaited Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at its COP15. This global agreement will guide international biodiversity policy in the coming years. The new GBF spells out four overarching goals to live in harmony with nature by 2050, and a set of 23 targets to be reached by 2030—a timeline that aligns with the SDGs. The laborious negotiations that took place between and within the countries party to the Convention on Biological Diversity with the participation of groups of observers such as indigenous peoples, local communities, international organizations, scientists, women’s and youth groups and civil society organizations during the last four years, account for the multiplicity of agendas, power relations between and within countries, different levels of ambition and capacity,  disparity of voices and priorities that are put into play in international negotiations. They also account for the challenges of collaborating at the planetary level in the governance of a global commons.

In the coming years, the 196 parties to the CBD need to move onto the challenging task of implementing and mainstreaming the GBF worldwide. This will not be an easy task considering that none of the 2010 Aichi targets on biodiversity conservation has been reached.  In this session we want to explore the making of the GBF as well as the challenges and opportunities for its implementation from a commons perspective. Given the urgency of the environmental crisis, we also want to discuss how local communities and academia can engage in its implementation. The panelists will include commons scholars that work on global commons, and a GBF negotiator. The panel will be divided in three sections: in the first one, four speakers will provide a background to the GBF; in the second section the GBF will be discussed with four panelists; lastly, there will be time for questions by the audience.

Panelists:

Gabriela Lichtenstein. Introduction to the panel and the KMGBF

Recorded presentation by IUCN Director of International Policy Center, Sonia Penia; IUCN ; Chair of IUCN Commission on Protected Areas, Madhu Rao; and the Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network,  and co-chair of the Indigenous Women Biodiversity Network, Lucy Mulenkei.

Panel members: Tobias Haller, Prateep Nayak, Lucy Mulenkei and Ilkhome Soliev