Context:

As the COP16 biodiversity conference approaches, concerns are mounting as only 10% of nations have fulfilled their pledges to safeguard biodiversity, thus highlighting the urgent need for action.

More on the News

The National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAP) Tracker, a new tool developed by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), is monitoring the progress of countries in developing their NBSAPs that align with the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

• The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted during the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022. 
• Its adoption was a crucial commitment by 196 countries who pledged to “halt and reverse” biodiversity loss by 2030. 
• Among the Framework’s key elements are 4 goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030.

Currently, just 20 countries have fully revised their NBSAPs since COP15 and only nine countries, along with the European Union, have submitted these updated plans as of June 2024.

India is also among the countries which has not yet submitted its report.

National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs)

There are two mandatory obligations of CBD on all Parties: 

• preparation of National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs), and 
• preparation of National Reports 

Article 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requires contracting Parties to develop an NBSAP (or an equivalent instrument), and to integrate conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into sectoral and cross-sectoral activities.

NBSAPs outline a country’s plan on how to protect and restore nature. NBSAPs mobilise action across the board and secure funding for biodiversity recovery. 

WWF’s NBSAPs Tracker critically reviews what countries have submitted to the United Nations.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

• The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), also known as the Biodiversity Convention, is a legally binding treaty that aims to protect biodiversity globally. 

It has three main goals: 

• the conservation of biological diversity, 
• the sustainable use of its components, and 
• the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. 

It was signed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the 'Earth Summit', which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, and came into force in December 1993. 

India became a Party to the CBD in 1993, and prepared its first NBAP entitled “National Policy and Macro Level Action Strategy on Biodiversity” in 1999.

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is the nodal Ministry for the implementation of CBD in India. 

Two Protocols have been adopted so far under the aegis of CBD: 

• Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2000); and 
• Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (2010). 

COP meetings are held once in two years, the latest COP 15 was held in Montreal, Canada in 2022. 

The eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) was held in Hyderabad, India in October 2012.

COP 16 of CBD

• The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will take place from October 21 to November 1, 2024, in Cali, Colombia.
• It is the first major meeting since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in 2022.