Over the next 12 days, Trinidad and Tobago will join global environmental leaders to push for expanded land and sea protection, measureable and explicit global targets, greater inclusivity, and resource mobilization for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), as governments from around the world come together to agree on a new set of goals to guide global action through 2030 to halt and reverse worldwide biodiversity collapse.
Ministry of Planning and Development Permanent Secretary, Ric Javed Ali, is the Head of Trinidad and Tobago’s Delegation at the 15th Meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of Parties (COP15), in Montreal, Canada, running from December 7 to 19. The Government’s Delegation also comprises Candace Amoroso, Biodiversity Specialist, and Kevin Bhajan, Environmental Policy Analyst, of the Planning Ministry’s Environmental Policy and Planning Division.
A healthy biodiversity is critical to human well-being and the functioning of the world as we know it. Biodiversity provides humans with vital natural services like the provision of clean water; coastal and shoreline protection; pollination and provision of food; medicinal resources and pharmaceutical drugs; clean air, pollution breakdown and absorption; recreation, tourism and ecotourism and it also supports lives and livelihoods among others things. However, the Living Planet Report 2022 states that there has been an average 69% decline in wildlife globally over just the past 48 years, with the Latin-American and Caribbean average coming in jarringly higher at 94%. The world is now at a crucial juncture in biodiversity loss which demands that we take urgent action to protect our very way of life.
The critical focus of COP15 will be finalizing negotiations for the adoption of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Every 10 years, governments agree on new targets to protect biodiversity. The last round was agreed at COP10 in Nagoya, Japan, when governments pledged to halve the loss of natural habitats and expand nature reserves to 17% of the world’s land area by 2020, among other goals. Those targets have since expired. COP15 thusly holds the pivotal task of achieving consensus for new global targets to be agreed to and adopted by the all the Parties via the Post-2020 GBF.
Trinidad and Tobago has been actively participating in the meetings of the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) which was tasked with developing the draft Global Biodiversity Framework. At COP15, T&T’s focus will be supporting the formulation and subsequent adoption of the GBF goals and targets, ensuring that they remains relevant and achievable within the national context.
In particular, a priority for Trinidad and Tobago in the Post-2020 GBF is the expansion of area-based land and sea conservation measures to cover at least 30% of the planet by 2030. This target, also called the 30×30 target, aligns with the Global Ocean Alliance (GOA) and High Ambition Coalitions (HAC) to which T&T is a member. Other areas of priority include ensuring that global targets be measurable, underpinned by science, and have explicit outcomes; and that the framework engages countries, cities, sub-national governments, indigenous peoples and local communities, industry, women, youth, farmers, civil society and the private sector. It should be inclusive, understanding of gender roles and inequalities, and reflect links between nature and culture. Further, close attention is being paid to resource mobilization to SIDS to facilitate timely and effective implementation of the GBF.
Trinidad and Tobago is exploring the possibility of financial resources for biodiversity conservation which globally need to be substantially increased through a variety of sources, including the deployment of new economic instruments such as payments for ecosystem services.
To ensure prompt implementation of the GBF nationally, preparations are underway to commence a rapid review of the country’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) to ensure it aligns to the goals and targets of the GBF. This is being done in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Initiatives and Projects that have been implemented or are underway nationally in accordance with our NBSAP include:
• Improving Forest and Protected Areas Management in Trinidad and Tobago (IFPAMTT)
• Trinidad and Tobago’s Biodiversity Information System (TTBIS)
• Biodiversity and Agroecologocal Land Restoration in Productive Landscapes of Trinidad and Tobago (BIOREACH), which promotes biodiversity conservation, restoration of degraded lands and the improvement of livelihoods of rural communities in targeted productive landscapes
• Biodiversity and Ecosystems Network (BES-Net), which focuses on more effective management of biodiversity and ecosystems as an integral part of long-term human well-being and sustainable development
• A National Protected Area System Plan