SPEECH: Implementing the 2010 Targets
37th Global Biodiversity Forum
8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
24-25 March; Curitiba, Brazil
Dear Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
My name is Camille Gremez and I live in Curitiba. I am an Angel, one of the 5000 volunteers who made this event logistically a success. We did this because we believe in you.
We are not coming from the sky. We are from the ground where you should be implementing what you have decided and is written on paper.
I am Livingston Maluleke from the Makuleke Community of South Africa. For the past two weeks I have engaged at the Community Taba with my local brothers and sisters from around the world discussing the critical need to empower local communities to deliver on the MDG and CBD agenda. We are proud to support this declaration to the COP and encourage all delegates to recognize the power and potential of their local communities to help us meet the 2010 target.
WE shall now share with you the diagnosis of what could be healed in the CBD work programme so that we in 2010 can proudly reflect on our successes. These are the findings of the Global Biodiversity Forum attended by 200 participants and organised by the Countdown 2010 Secretariat.
Excellences, Mesdames et Messieurs
The 37th Session of the Global Biodiversity Forum (GBF) was convened in partnership with over 40 organizations on 24-25 March in Curitiba, Brazil to explore ways to accelerate implementation of the 2010 targets. In the GBF tradition this Session provided a forum for free exchange of views to foster analysis, dialogue, and debate amongst all stakeholders, including representatives of governments, non-government organizations, indigenous peoples, local communities, and the private sector to develop practical guidance and recommendations towards implementation of the CBD programmes of work.
YOU, Parties to the CBD have committed to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth. Meeting this target requires an urgent call to scale up action by all stakeholders at the local, national, regional and international levels. Participants of the GBF defined an action-oriented roadmap to achieve the 2010 targets. Four workshops were held to:
- Explore the role of biodiversity in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);
- Identify mechanisms for financing biodiversity action for achieving the 2010 targets;
- Share experience on how to scale up local successes to ensure implementation of the targets; and
- Enable biodiversity trade to contribute to achieving the targets.
Senhoras e Senhores:
In accordance with the CBD CoP8 agenda, three action areas were identified as particularly relevant, namely building awareness, providing an enabling policy framework and partnering for action:
Meine Damen und Herren:
The principal conclusion of the Global Biodiversity Forum is that we must act now if we are to achieve the biodiversity target by 2010. Action must focus on practical guidance and solutions to problems. Effective action to achieve the 2010 targets will also require innovative partnerships involving the private sector, every community, and every citizen of the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In closing let us re-iterate that the environment is not just a pillar of sustainable development, but the very foundation for life on earth, on which development can be sustained. Biodiversity conservation is not a luxury. If the world’s ecosystems are to provide the spectrum of goods and services on which humankind depends it is essential that biodiversity be conserved and managed in sustainable manner.
Achieving the Millennium Development Goals will depend on progress made in meeting the 2010 target; conversely, success in the 2010 campaign will depend on progress in meeting the MDG targets. Under these circumstances governments must rethink how they will meet their conservation needs, how they will finance them and what policies will be needed to provide financing mechanisms to meet the costs of conservation.
Since the CBD was launched at the Rio Summit in 1992, the Parties have taken many decisions, which, if acted on, would make a substantial difference. Today we can no longer consider these decisions to be the exclusive responsibility of governments, but rather, a mandate to provide means and incentives to involve the private sector, communities, and all sectors of civil society. The recommendations made at this GBF may sound familiar, which goes to show that now, more than ever, we need to move beyond talk to action.
A copy of the detailed recommendations can be found at back of this room or on www.gbf.ch
Thank you.
Merci Beaucoup.
Obrigado.
Xia Khenja.