India will chair the second part of the International Biodiversity meeting to begin here on Monday.
The 11th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity will discuss the progress made so far in the implementation of the Strategic Plan and biodiversity targets. The member- countries will chalk out measures to speed up the implementation of the Convention on Biodiversity. The countries will review the ten-year framework agreed at its last meeting at Nagoya as an action plan for implementation of the convention. The Executive Secretary Dr Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias told the media that legal and financial frameworks for helping countries to implement the convention will also be discussed during the deliberations.
Over 10,000 delegates from 193 countries are attending the 11th meeting of Conference of Parties. Besides, representatives of UN organizations, non-government organizations from various countries, local bodies and elected representatives are taking part in the meeting. After 12 days of deliberations, the countries are expected to take decisions to give further momentum to their action plans to achieve biodiversity targets. Mobilizing resources to implement the action plan will one of the main issues coming for discussion. Oceans and Coastline biodiversity will be highlighted during Hyderabad deliberations. Measures for restoration of degraded ecosystems will be given attention besides addressing protecting biodiversity of agriculture, dry and semi-arid, inland water, forests and mountains.
The governments will hold negotiations to make headway towards implementation of Nagoya Protocol on Access and benefit sharing of genetic resources. The protocol requires six of the 50 ratifications to come into force. A high-level ministerial summit will be held from October 16 in which some 30 heads of State and 50 environment ministers will attend the meet to discuss key issues of the conference.
On the occasion, several parallel sessions are being organized on a variety of themes relating to biodiversity. The conference of Mayors called Cities for Life, will be held to discuss the role of local bodies in protecting the biodiversity and implementation of the strategic plan. In a first of its kind move, the Hyderabad Biodiversity index report will be released on the occasion. A special summit of Island States from around the world will also be convened with an aim to protect the Island biodiversity. The UN organizations and key International organizations will also hold a separate meeting to discuss the ways and means in support to the biodiversity targets. (NSS)