Cali, Colombia, 1st November 2024
The negotiating body of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) today adopted its first Global Action Plan for Biodiversity and Health, at its 16th meeting in Cali, Colombia (COP16).
The adoption of the action plan is hugely significant, both symbolically in terms of formally endorsing One Health approaches and related initiatives which have been working towards this milestone over the past two decades, and practically by outlining a strategy for integrating health and biodiversity in policy and practice from global to national and local levels, and linking this with a human rights-based approach.
The stated aim of the Global Action Plan is “to support Parties and other Governments at all levels, relevant organizations and initiatives, indigenous peoples and local communities, women, children, youth, the private sector and other stakeholders in mainstreaming biodiversity and health interlinkages into national policies, strategies, programmes and accounts, in line with national circumstances, priorities and legislation and in a manner consistent with relevant international obligations. The Plan is aimed in particular at enabling relevant government authorities to collaborate closely and coordinate their work on biodiversity and health interlinkages.”
It is supported by an indicative list of considerations and tools to assist in its implementation, and a set of suggested actions to mainstream biodiversity and health interlinkages into national policies, strategies, programmes and accounts. It is also supported by a detailed list of actions which link the Global Action Plan to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted at the previous Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Montreal in 2022.
The Cohab Initiative Secretariat has been present here in Cali providing scientific, technical and diplomatic support to the Parties during the negotiations. The following is the text of a statement from Cohab’s Executive Director Mr. Conor Kretsch, on the adoption of the Global Action Plan.
Statement from the Secretariat of the Cohab Initiative (Co-operation on Health and Biodiversity) on the Adoption of the Global Action Plan for Biodiversity and Health
at the 16th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD COP16, in Cali, Colombia
Friday 1st November 2024
Twenty years ago, early in 2004, the CBD Secretariat joined with WHO, the UN Development Programme, FAO, the Pan American Health Organisation, UNESCO and several other IGOs, governments, and NGOs to launch the First International Conference on Health and Biodiversity, which took place a year later in Ireland. The report from that meeting was endorsed by the Conference of the Parties at its 8th meeting in Curitiba in 2006, helping to grow the process which has now brought us to this point where today we see the adoption of a Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health.
Whilst we celebrate a Global Action Plan as a milestone, twenty years is a long time to arrive at a plan which seeks to address an urgent need to connect the global priorities of biodiversity loss and human health. But it reflects the enormous scale and complexity of the issues involved, the difficulty of breaking down barriers to action, and the need to carefully integrate with other efforts - on climate change, injustice, and conflict resolution, to mention just a few.
During that time, as the Conference of Parties took steps to address health linkages via decisions across ten COPs, we have seen the dire health consequences of the loss and unsustainable use of biodiversity worldwide, through heightened impacts of disasters such as tsunamis and extreme weather, the emergence or resurgence of infectious diseases including Ebola, Avian Influenza, Plague, and of course Covid 19, growing nutrition insecurity, and the increased toll of environmental degradation on our individual and collective mental health and social well-being, not to mention impacts on the health of wildlife and of ecosystems. With continuing loss of biodiversity, the health landscape can only get much worse.
Surely there can be no greater responsibility, and no greater opportunity to renew global solidarity and partnership, than to respond to the pressing and extreme threats which biodiversity loss poses to our health, and consequently to global security. So, on behalf of the Cohab Initiative and our global partners, the Cohab Secretariat commends the COP for adopting this essential Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health, and for the commitment and co-operation which has been demonstrated at each step of this long journey.
However, we urge this Conference to take note, that whilst it seems here in Cali that we have successfully mainstreamed health into the work of the biodiversity community, the contrary challenge remains and is increasingly urgent: every Party must work earnestly to mainstream biodiversity effectively into the health sector. That gap has not yet been bridged, and the Global Action Plan is the best tool the Parties have to achieve this. It is the most important text that the COP has produced in this regard since 1992.
Unfortunately, the Action Plan is in some places weaker than it should or could be. It is an entirely voluntary Action Plan, yet the acceptance of certain elements, which are simply suggestions to address issues of priority to the health sector and to adopt measures that the health sector is ready, willing and waiting to work with, has somehow proved a challenge – not just at this COP, but at previous CBD meetings. This is troubling, and while we can all accept that policy is messy, and compromise is often necessary and good, failure to accept and act on certain scientific facts in this forum does not inspire great hope that all Parties will adequately address health threats from biodiversity loss at home. In addition, the voices and perspectives of those whose health is most vulnerable to biodiversity loss - including indigenous and local communities, women, and youth - are not appropriately evident in the final document. At some point we all must decide to accept the science, to respond to the warnings that nature and our communities have been roaring at us for decades, and just get the job done. We don’t have another twenty years.
While congratulations are deserved here in Cali, the work required of the COP to address biodiversity and health interlinkages has at long last only begun. Implementing the Global Action Plan is the new starting point. It needs to be supported and reinforced, and the related process made more inclusive, and more accessible to the health sector, at COP17 in Armenia. Cohab and its partners look forward to continuing to support the Secretariat and all Parties in building on this important decision, in partnership, for people and planet.
Felicidades a todos. Hoy, manos a la obra.
*******