Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Narend Singh, will lead the South African delegation to the 16th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD COP 16) in Cali, Colombia.

The delegation will actively engage in negotiations to promote global biodiversity conservation priorities, enhance sustainable use, and advocate for fair and equitable benefit-sharing from the utilisation of genetic resources and digital sequence information on genetic resources.

“We approach COP16 with a clear focus on aligning biodiversity conservation with social and economic development, ensuring that the use of our biological resources benefits all South Africans.

‘South Africa will demonstrate how it is making its fair share contribution to halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity within its national capabilities, and further call for the provision of adequate, predictable and timely financial resources, for the protection of our natural he
ritage.

‘Further, we will reiterate President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call at UNGA 75 that the financial architecture needs to be reformed to meet the needs of developing economies for sustainable development,’ Singh said on Monday.

South Africa will negotiate as part of the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) on Biodiversity; focusing on key issues such as resource mobilisation; mechanism for planning; reporting and review; scientific and technical cooperation, and how developing countries like South Africa can benefit from the use of digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources.

‘South Africa will advocate for the operationalisation of a dedicated Global Biodiversity Fund, under the authority of the COP, to ensure sustained financial support for the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

‘This fund is critical to closing the $200 billion annual financing gap needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. The country will call for clear financial commitments from developed nations t
o support developing countries to honour their obligations to developing countries in line with Article 20 of the Convention,’ the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment said.

As a mega-diverse country, South Africa will strongly support the adoption of a pragmatic decision on the modality for the operationalisation of multilateral mechanism for fair and equitable sharing of benefits, both monetary and non-monetary, from the use of DSI for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity including livelihoods improvements for indigenous people and local communities.

South Africa’s priorities for consideration at this COP includes triggers for benefit sharing, collection and distribution of funds, fund host and data governance.

The convention starts on 21 October and runs until 1 November 2024.

Deputy Minister Singh will participate in the High-Level Segment on 29 – 30 October 2024, where for the first time in CBD history, Heads of States and Finance Ministers have been invited to participa
te in order to provide political momentum to finalise key negotiations in the acceleration of the implementation of the GBF.

Source: South African Government News Agency