OEWG3

Opening Statements: 

CBD Alliance

International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity

Women's Caucus

Global Youth Biodiversity Network 

ECO

Volume 62, Issue 1

Volume 62, Issue 2

Closing Statements:

International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity

Women's Caucus

Global Youth Biodiversity Network 

CBD Alliance 

The CBD Alliance is present at the resumed sessions in Geneva (SBSTTA24 / SBI3 / OEWG3)

We have delivered a statement during the Opening plenary of the meetings that you can find below. 

We also produce ECO, which is a daily publiacation that contains civil society's positions, suggestions and concerns.

Some special printed ECO issues are also produced and can be found below.

If you wish to write an article for ECO during the Geneva sessions, please put in contact with: noa.asteiner@gmail.com

If you are a member of the CBDA and wish to be part of our activities during the Geneva sessions, please write to gadirlavadenz@gmail.com to be included in our internal coordination mailing list. 

You can also follow our activities through social media:

Twitter:         https://twitter.com/cbd_alliance

Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/CBD-Alliance-279019078871039

Youtube:      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL-W-x1w9qI-jquXZJSftnQ

For further references and information, you can visit the map of activities of our online mobilization, People's voices for Biodiversity which is an effort to amplify the voices of civil society from all over the world. 

Statements of the CBD Alliance during OEWG3. The views provided in the statements refer to the first draft of the post 2020 GBF as of August, 2021 

- General views on draft 1 of the Global Biodiversity Framework

_{(The document includes a short version to fit the time allocated in the plenary and a longer version with a more detailed rationale)}

Agenda item 5

- Digital Sequence Information 

Agenda item 4 

- Target 3: By 2030, ensure active management actions to enable wild species of fauna and flora recovery and conservation, and reduce human-wildlife conflict by [X%].

- Target 8: Minimize the impact of climate change on biodiversity, contribute to mitigation and adaptation through ecosystem-based approaches, contributing at least 10 GtCO₂e per year to global mitigation efforts, and ensure that all mitigation and adaptation efforts avoid negative impacts on biodiversity

- Target 14: By 2030, achieve reduction of at least [50%] in negative impacts on biodiversity by ensuring production practices and supply chains are sustainable.

- Target 15: By 2030, eliminate unsustainable consumption patterns, ensuring people everywhere understand and appreciate the value of biodiversity, and thus make responsible choices commensurate with 2050 biodiversity vision, taking into account individual and national cultural and socioeconomic conditions.

- Text recommendation for Target 16: Ensure that people are encouraged and enabled to make responsible choices and have access to relevant information and alternatives, taking into account cultural preferences, to reduce by at least half the waste and, where relevant the overconsumption, of food and other materials.

- Statement on the General Structure of the GBF 

La Paz, 26 May 2021

Your Excellency;

We extend our condolences to all who have lost loved ones during the pandemic. We are aware some countries, including the Peoples’ Republic of China, are slowly overcoming the brunt of the pandemic. However, many developing countries are still coping with high levels of infections, and have inequitable access to life-saving vaccines and therapies.

In this context, due to the current travel restrictions, it is highly unlikely conditions will be adequate in all countries that are Party to the CBD by October 2021 to allow for a safe face-to-face meeting. It is even more unlikely that the crucial 3rd OEWG meeting can be held face-to-face in August. In this respect, we learn with great concern that there have been proposals to go ahead with OEWG3 as a virtual meeting, and that even the COP itself might be organized in the form of a hybrid or even entirely virtual meeting. While appreciating that virtual meetings can, in principle, be a useful, environmentally friendly method to exchange views and information, virtual or semi-virtual negotiation meetings on substantive policy issues are very problematic for several fundamental reasons.

This is why the CBD Alliance would like to express its strong concerns and recommendations about the organization of the upcoming 3rd OEWG meeting and 15th CBD COP during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Experience with virtual CBD negotiations so far, including the SBSTTA 24 and SBI 3 and in other UN spaces, has shown many inequities, limitations and challenges: 

• Quite a number of delegates and observers have problems with connectivity, and participants from developing countries and rights holders and vulnerable groups such as IPLCs face substantially more problems than others.

• The timings of virtual meetings are highly inconvenient for several Parties, but more burdensome for Asian and Pacific, and Latin America. Also, the timing and length of virtual negotiations pose an extra burden specially for developing country delegates who often have to simultaneously fulfill other work commitments resulting in unbalanced participation with some countries being absent from some crucial discussions.

• Another important problem is that vital face-to-face exchanges and discussions, including meetings in the corridors or on the margins of negotiations, are completely absent in virtual settings. This represents a major obstacle to regional coordination and risks not reaching consensus on important issues leading to weak decisions that do not commensurate with Parties´ obligations and the urgent need for action.

Considering the above challenges, we suggest the following:

• The OEWG 3 and CBD COP15 should be postponed until such time as they can take place face-to-face under safe conditions. There is a lot of work to be done before the GBF is fit for purpose. We urge Parties to the CBD to take the time needed to develop a transformational, equitable, inclusive and ambitious GBF that truly forms a Strategic Plan.

• Postponing these meetings is not equivalent to inaction. Parties to the CBD have unmet obligations including the founding text of the CBD, previous COP decisions and even work in relation to the Aichi Targets. There is sufficient existing policy guidance on how to achieve the objectives of the Convention.