At COP 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the five Regional Commissions (RCs), including the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Commission Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), came together to hold a high-level event, on December 15, 2022 , and make a joint declaration that embodies their commitment to the implementation of the new Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
At this event, the Regional Commissions recognized the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services, the need to increase efforts to address the multiple global crises and biodiversity loss, and pave the way for transformative changes in societies, economies, and institutions. In this sense, the Regional Commissions expressed their commitment to a joint, coordinated and coherent collaboration to help achieve the objectives of the new Global Biodiversity Framework. Thus, they also declared their commitment to promote the integration of biodiversity and promote transformative changes, promote the development of legal, institutional and regulatory frameworks based on human rights to regulate and ensure the right to a healthy, clean, safe and sustainable environment; promote collaboration and dialogue within and between regions, strengthen the exchange of knowledge on biodiversity through regional forums and support the strengthening of the capacities of the Member States of the United Nations to mobilize investments, among other aspects (See joint declaration Here ).
Additionally, in the session, each Regional Commission had the opportunity to present the challenges to biodiversity conservation that the different regions face, sharing their vision of how to address these challenges and pointing out the action focuses in which they are working and the capacities built to support its member countries and move towards meeting the objectives of the new Global Biodiversity Framework. At the event, ECLAC’s executive secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, pointed out that the commission is committed to promoting new governance models and transformative changes, encouraging investments in conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, disseminating good practices, building capacities, providing technical assistance, and promoting multi-stakeholder regional dialogues, among other aspects to continue what has been called the Big Push for Sustainability. Likewise, the executive secretary highlighted the role of ECLAC in the report on indicators on SDGs 14 and 15, the promotion of environmental accounts, the bioeconomy and circular economy, and in the adoption of the Escazú Agreement in the region.
In addition, the event was attended by government representatives from Chile, Egypt and the Maldives, who discussed the role of the Regional Commissions in generating regional cooperation and coordination for the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources. At this event, Expertise France, organizer and financial partner of the event, also expressed its commitment to the implementation of the new Global Biodiversity Framework and the need to reach as many people as possible to achieve the goals of the new framework. In this sense, they pointed out their work in supporting 10 countries for the implementation of the new framework using a multidimensional approach and addressing different challenges according to the national and regional contexts. Finally, the importance of the Regional Commissions and their role as strategic partners to help nations develop national objectives and support the implementation of the framework was highlighted, as well as the generation of common spaces at the regional level to converge common visions.
