Nature preservation efforts underway at COP16 in Cali
The UN Biodiversity Conference, Cop16, is currently underway in Cali, Colombia, from October 21 to November 1. The event, a commitment to Peace with Nature, aims to contribute to the country's GDP through the biodiversity economy while preserving and sustainably managing biodiversity.
The key focus of Cop16 is advancing implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and achieve the CBD's three objectives: conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and fair and equitable benefit-sharing from genetic resources.
One of the central themes of Cop is the financial resources required to achieve the GBF's goals. The conference emphasized the critical need to mobilize at least USD 200 billion annually from public and private sources (domestic and international) to finance biodiversity goals. To this end, the Cali Fund was established during Cop16 to channel benefit-sharing contributions from companies using genetic data, including pharmaceutical firms, to support biodiversity conservation in developing countries.
However, as of mid-2025, the Cali Fund remains largely empty, with industry contributions still voluntary and no binding payment obligations, leading to delayed resource mobilization.
Other key outcomes of Cop16 include the adoption of decisions to operationalize a multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism for digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources. This decision resulted in the establishment of the Cali Fund.
The conference also aligned national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) with GBF targets and developed national targets for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. Conservation goals such as restoring 30% of degraded ecosystems globally, conserving and managing 30% of terrestrial and marine areas, reducing human-induced extinctions, pesticide risks, nutrient pollution, invasive species introduction, and increasing sustainable practices in agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, and forestry were also discussed.
Addressing climate change impacts with nature-based solutions and securing legal and sustainable use and trade of wild species were also highlighted. Furthermore, a permanent Subsidiary Body on Article 8(j) was established to focus on Indigenous Peoples and local communities' roles in biodiversity.
Lastly, the conference aimed to accelerate territorial planning as a participatory process and address issues related to access to genetic resources. It also focused on the relationship between ecological restoration and revitalizing regional economies and the need for monitoring and reporting mechanisms for biodiversity goals. The conference also emphasized the importance of protecting environmental defenders.
In summary, Cop16 focused on setting actionable conservation targets, creating financial mechanisms like the Cali Fund to support these, and aligning national policies with the global biodiversity framework while highlighting the urgent need for substantial and sustained financing.
- To achieve the Cali Fund's goals and secure funding for biodiversity conservation, it's essential to collaborate with pharmaceutical firms and other companies using genetic data, offering therapies-and-treatments, for environmental-science contributions.
- As part of the biodiversity economy, research and work in health-and-wellness, including therapies-and-treatments, can contribute significantly to the GDP, while also preserving and sustainably managing biodiversity, as demonstrated in the Cop16 event.
- In the context of climate-change, nature-based solutions were highlighted in Cop16, emphasizing the need for ecological restoration to not only combat biodiversity loss but also revitalize regional economies, thereby combining environmental-science with health-and-wellness and the economy.
