Arab participation in the Fifth Conference of the Parties to Protect Biodiversity

The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development participated in the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention for the Protection of Biological Diversity, currently held in Montreal, Canada.

The organization’s delegation’s activities were to arrange and coordinate daily meetings of the Arab Group participating in the Conference, follow-up meetings of the African and Asian groups and provide the Arab Group with the positions of the two groups of negotiating issues, which remain different, particularly the new global framework for biodiversity beyond 2020, as well as issues of finance, digital sequencing, the role of women and communities and capacity-building to facilitate a unified position of the Group of 77 and China on these issues to be negotiated with other partners from developed countries.

According to a press release issued by the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the meeting was opened on Thursday with the participation of many Arab delegations. The opening ceremony was an occasion to follow up on a remote intervention by His Excellency the President of the People’s Republic of China, who is currently chairing the Conference, as well as addresses by the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Deputy Secretary of the United Nations, the Canadian Minister Minister of the Environment and Representatives of Canada.

The OECD delegation stressed the need to establish a group of Arab biodiversity negotiators, as existed in the Climate Convention and the Desertification Convention. The Convention on Biological Diversity was currently at a difficult juncture owing to the lack of agreement on a new global framework in this area that would replace the Eiche Framework ending in 2020.

The delegation affirmed the Organization’s willingness to provide technical and logistical support to the Group when it was established. The participating Arab States commended the proposal and requested the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States to take legal and institutional action to establish the Group.

On the sidelines of the high-level meeting, the organization’s delegation participated in the side event organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commissions in the regions of West Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The delegation commended the cooperation between the organization and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA), which had enabled many joint activities to be carried out in favour of the Arab States and the organization’s eagerness to continue and strengthen such cooperation.

It should be noted that the work of the 15th Conference of the Parties on Biodiversity began at the Convention Palace in downtown Montreal on December 6 and ends next Monday, December 19.

The Conference aims at renewing the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, ending the destruction and beginning to restore ecosystems and wildlife.