Brazil GEF meet: Agreement on new biodiversity conservation fund; to be ratified in August

Subject : Environment

Section: International convention

Context:

The 64th Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) governing board has approved plans to establish a new fund to finance the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in December 2022.

Details:

Council members agreed on the establishment of a new trust fund, called the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund and the programming directions for it.
Nearly 50 per cent of its funds are to be used for biodiversity-related work.
GEF will provide $1.4 billion to support efforts on environmental protection.
The members also agreed to support the new agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The proposed fund allocations are as follows:

20 per cent will go to Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC). This is an aspirational goal.
25 per cent will go to GEF agencies and must be enforced.
Allocation of funds to IPLCs would be reviewed two years after ratification in August. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDC) will get 36 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively. This would be reviewed three years after ratification.

What is Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)?

The 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) on December 2022.
The framework has 23 targets that the world needs to achieve by 2030.
The countries will monitor and report every five years or less on a large set of indicators related to progress.

What is the BBNJ treaty?

The BBNJ Treaty also called the Treaty of the High Seas, is an international agreement that aims to preserve and sustainably use the marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
This includes the high seas, which are outside of countries’ exclusive economic zones and make up nearly half of the Earth’s surface.
These areas are currently poorly regulated and only 1% of them are protected.
The High Ambition Coalition on BBNJ was launched in February 2022 to negotiate and achieve a comprehensive and ambitious outcome.