Dimitri de Boer
13th October 2021
The Kunming Declaration (see full text in English here) was adopted today. Its main purpose is to reaffirm the global political commitment to tackling the biodiversity crisis, and continue the process of coming to an agreement on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The text is agreed by ministers of all parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which includes just about every country except the USA.
I believe some of its highlights include the following lines:
- Urgency of the crisis. The declaration states: “… putting biodiversity on a path to recovery is a defining challenge of this decade.”
- About the post-2020 GBF:
- Use of the law. Parties agree to “Actively enhance the global environmental legal framework and strengthen environmental law at national level, and its enforcement, to protect biodiversity…”
The above are all powerful principles, and set the stage well for the development of the post-2020 GBF. Perhaps most importantly, the declaration provides strong political commitment among all parties to continue to step up action now, without waiting for the adoption of the post-2020 GBF.