CBD

Discussions on funding, financial targets and innovative financial mechanisms were extremely difficult during the COP10 in Nagoya in October 2010 and clearly revealed the divide between North and South. They also reflect a wider struggle going on over the effectiveness and implications of market‐oriented approaches to the three Rio Conventions, including biodiversity conservation. This struggle that is going to be central for "Rio+20", the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development where 'green economy' is one of the two main topics on the agenda.

H. Paul & A. Lorch, ECO, Vol. 36(1)

It was clear from the beginning of the biennial United Nations biodiversity conference in Nagoya that money was - and is - a crucial issue. Unfortunately, the conference confirmed a consistent pattern of failure to make sufficient provision for developing countries to enable them to implement their commitments under the CBD.

Antje Lorch, Third World Resurgence No. 242/243, Nov. 2010

[img_assist|nid=216|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=43]The production of agrofuel crops and its effects on biodiversity and livelyhoods were a highly contested issue during COP9 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn in May 2008. Numerous sessions took place, often till late in the evening and a final compromise was only found around 1:30 in the night in a closed meeting between a few countries.

[img_assist|nid=111|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=43]On Friday, 30 May 2008, when COP9 closed, the German Ministry on Environment issued a press release, summarizing the results.

Biodiversity offsets are meant to compensate for biodiversity damage caused by industrial development, but they are a double-edged sword. Biodiversity offsets should not be embraced by COP9 without a discussion of the risks involved and how they will relate to the rest of the CBD, particularly article 8(j) and incentives (article 11).
Biodiversity offsets can act as a perverse incentive, actually enabling biodiversity loss (companies can destroy biodiversity here and offset it there). Offsets can also undermine existing regulations such as environmental impact assessments by appeasing regulators with promises of ‘no net impact’. Offset programmes are an implicit invitation and incentive to go from risk prevention and precaution to risk management.
Moreover infrastructure projects leading to biodiversity loss typically involve struggles over land use. These projects can displace peoples and transgress human rights. How can these abuses be offset? Will aggrieved communities be compensated in ways that further violate free prior informed consent in the establishment of offset areas? How is the impact on traditional knowledge offset? Is it even possible? And who decides?

BBOP till you drop

Despite these problems, the initiative "Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme" (BBOP) has surfaced as something to be welcomed by the COP.
But the proposed BBOP itself still hasn't defined their principles and criteria. As the BBOP stated in their side event on Monday: the draft principles will be up for consultation by June, and hopefully finished some time in autumn. There are currently no clear and transparent criteria formulated about what is offsetable, and which impacts are unacceptable.
The BBOP is an exclusive partnership largely between business, government and conservation experts. BBOP’s main sponsors and partners include the Australian government, USAid, Newmont, Solid Energy, IUNC, Conservation International and the IFC.

A. Lorch, ECO Vol. 23(7), May 2008

[img_assist|nid=190|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=100|height=43]The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has identified information exchange down as one of its aims and established a Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM) with the task of facilitating technical and scientific cooperation. Information exchange by the National Focal Points, however, is decentralized and lacking a common structure, and lacks the resources required to make the most of its potential.

A. Lorch, Biotechnology and Development Monitor, March 2002

[img_assist|nid=27|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=150|height=64][read complete dossier]The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has identified information exchange down as one of its aims and established a Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM) with the task of facilitating technical and scientific cooperation. Information exchange by the National Focal Points, however, is decentralized and lacking a common structure, and lacks the resources required to make the most of its potential.