Cook Islands National Environment Service (NES) delegation to the Convention on Biological Diversity 16th Conference of the Parties (CBD COP16) has successfully submitted the country’s national target in alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted during the 15^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) after a four-year consultation and negotiation process supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and setting out a pathway to reach the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050. 

NES director Halatoa Fua said the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established at the Rio Summit in 1992, to recognise the importance of the earth’s biological resources to the economic and social development of humanity.

According to Fua, Cook Islands is a party to the CBD, and biodiversity and nature loss is one of the key factors of the triple planetary crisis.

He said the CBD COP16 theme is “Peace and Nature”, which focuses on our ability as humans to sustain and maintain life on Planet Earth.

The COP16 discusses the 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and many agenda items that are being carried out in the Cook Islands.

“This includes invasive species, biodiversity and health, plant conservation, climate change, digital sequence information on genetic resources, and identifying scientific and technical needs to support the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,” Fua said.

“The Cook Islands ratified the CBD in December 1993 and continues to deliver projects under this convention. The most recent project is the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) that is currently going through public consultations in the Cook Islands.”

The Cook Islands delegation is led by NES environmental stewardship manager Elizabeth Munro and biodiversity coordinator Jessie Nicholson. They arrived in Cali, Colombia, last week to attend the fifth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation from October 16-18 prior to the CBD COP16 this week.

Moana Tetauru, digital and communications coordinator at NES, who is also a member of the delegation, explained the meeting was to review the implementation and progress on the national target setting and updating of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).

“Through this, the Cook Islands along with 103 other countries, successfully submitted our draft national targets in alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). The targets will be updated once the NBSAPs (National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans) national consultations are completed,” Tetauru said.

“The framework which aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 was adopted by 196 countries at COP15 in Montreal in December 2022.”

On Tuesday, the Cook Islands led the Pacific in discussions on agenda item 20, focusing on marine and coastal biodiversity. These discussions continued yesterday.

Tetauru added that once discussions are completed, this then becomes a Conference Room Paper (CRP) where it’s debated further.

“This is the first review of the document, and once the process is completed this will then be debated in plenary.”

Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu are also party to the CBD.