WCS at CBD CoP16
Cali, Colombia
October 21–November 1, 2024
Quick Links
Press Releases
Our Priorities
Video with WCS's Dr. Rachel Neugarten
Video with WCS’s Dr. Susan Lieberman
WCS Wild Audio Podcast
Video with WCS's Sushil Raj
WCS In The Media
Achieving National Targets
Meet WCS Colombia’s Catalina Guttierez
WCS International Policy
UN Biodiversity Conference Suspended, Adopting Some Wins, But With Much More To Be Done
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Grassroots Movement Protects 200 km² of Puerto Rico’s Ocean Ecosystems
After 16 years of grassroots efforts, local communities in northern Puerto Rico are celebrating the creation of a new marine protected area (MPA) – Jardines Submarinos de Vega Baja y Manatí.
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WCS Brazil and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Launch Protocol of Intent for Biodiversity Conservation
A central focus of the Protocol is the collaboration to create innovative mechanisms for financing protected areas through the High Integrity Forests Investment Initiative (HIFOR).
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From Cali to Belem: United Nations Conventions Must Fight Climate and Biodiversity Crises With United Efforts
At COP16 in Cali, Colombia, the connections between nature and climate are getting the attention they deserve, said WCS's Dan Zarin.
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Governments Poised to Take Important Step to Prevent the Next Deadly Pandemic
Four-plus years since COVID-19 killed millions, the world’s governments are uniting behind important action to connect biodiversity and health.
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Six Global Environmental Organizations Unite to Scale Climate and Conservation Outcomes Through Sovereign Debt Conversions
New coalition will develop a shared pipeline of potential projects, contribute to the development of first-ever practice standards for sovereign debt conversions for nature and climate, coordinate policy efforts, share best practices.
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Can a UN Meeting Help Save Jaguars?
Fifty percent of the jaguar's original distribution has been lost, as the trend in jaguar populations continues to decline. The Jaguar is the start of the UN Biodiversity Conference in Colombia, the most iconic symbol for nature.
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The World’s Governments Have an Opportunity To Take Significant Steps to Halt the World’s Biodiversity, Climate and Health Crises
“Resilience to the impacts of climate change is increasingly critical,” says WCS's Joe Walston, “and resilience derives from the ecological integrity of natural ecosystems. Hence, governments must incorporate ecological integrity into their plans and targets.”
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Ecological Integrity: Central to the Global Biodiversity Framework and the UNFCCC Paris Agreement
The interlinked global crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, and threats to human and wildlife health are continuing to accelerate, posing existential threats to biodiversity and human well-being, and undermining efforts to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework. Maintaining and improving ecological integrity–structure, composition, and function–is central to addressing all three of these crises.
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Colombia Advances in the Protection Of Its National Natural Parks Amid Ongoing Threats
A new report reaffirms that Colombia’s National Natural Parks are strongholds of biodiversity and essential for tackling the climate crisis and achieving peace with nature. However, it also highlights that threats such as deforestation and other illegal activities continue to degrade the health of these parks, and that a significant increase in funding is crucial to ensure their effectiveness in conservation.
Act NowWCS called for ambitious outcomes at CBD CoP16, including decisions that demonstrate political would demonstrate to tackle our interlinked planetary crises through the KM-GBF.
- Biodiversity: Parties incorporate ecological integrity into their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and associated national targets that contribute to achievement of the GBF 2030 and 2050 objectives.
- Climate: Parties recognize ecological integrity as critical to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, and call for greater effort within UNFCCC.
- Health: Parties adopt a Global Action Plan centered on One Health approaches and recognize the diverse links between ecological integrity and human health.
- The GBF: Parties should commit to implementation of national targets and NBSAPs, and build mechanisms for progress on finance and global reviews of implementation.
What is ecological integrity and why is it important?
"An opportunity to evaluate progress"
The Global Conservation Community Prepares for Action on Biodiversity Protection in Colombia
Listen as we speak with CBD Deputy Executive Secretary David Cooper to learn more about what brings the conservation community to Latin America and what it hopes to achieve there.
In Colombia, Making “Peace with Nature”
Members of WCS’s COP16 delegation (Dr. Susan Lieberman, Catalina Gutierrez, and Jose Luis Gomez) share thoughts on the meeting and what the organization's priorities will be.
The United States is one of only 2 UN Member States that is actually not a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity. But over the years, says Kelly Aylward, WCS’s Executive Director of Federal Affairs and Policy, it has been successful at driving ambition in policy, action, and nature finance pledges.
Issues important to Indigenous Peoples and local communities at COP16
Here’s how to reform multilateral funding to get more money directly to communities
To meet biodiversity and climate goals, write WCS’s Sushil Raj, Minnie Degawan, and Rony Brodsky of The Nature Conservancy at Mongabay, a deeper transformation in partnerships between multilateral funders and Indigenous Peoples and local communities is urgently needed.
Making Ocean Investment Count
Unless we secure seascapes in the right places, write WCS's Dr. Stacy Jupiter and Dr. Emily Darling for PBS Nature, we could easily end up with the wrong 30 percent protection that does little to protect biodiversity, sustain a healthy planet, and deliver crucial ocean services.
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Environment NGOs launch coalition to aid debt-for-nature swaps at COP16
These benefit governments, local communities, and nature, WCS Interim President and CEO Robb Menzi tells Reuters.
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After Colombia's FARC peace agreement, scientists found more new species
After the peace deal, WCS researchers were able to use drones to count eastern Colombia's critically endangered Orinoco crocodiles in an area previously too dangerous, said WCS's scientific director, German Forero.
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COP16 Urges Action to Prevent Future Pandemics and Biodiversity Loss
“We must change our relationship with nature if we want to prevent more epidemics and pandemics,” WCS's Dr. Susan Lieberman tells AFP.
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COP16 highlights urgent need for action
“Many countries have not yet submitted their targets,” WCS’s Michel Masozera tells Citizen Digital, “indicating a lack of prioritization in their actions to reverse biodiversity loss.”
Act NowColombia's Call for Peace With Nature
As a Colombian and the director of a conservation organization in one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet, writes WCS's Catalina Gutiérrez, and simultaneously one of the most affected by a prolonged armed conflict, this theme deeply resonates with our work.
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In this season of global environmental negotiations, the EU must not waver
There has never been a better time for governments and stakeholders to work together and find integrated solutions to the span of environmental crises we face, writes WCS's Janice Weatherley-Singh at Euractiv.
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Pressure Grows for Countries to Deliver on Targets
We see progress on reaching the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework, WCS's Dr. Susan Lieberman tells the Associated Press. Finance remains an obstacle for some.
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Global coral bleaching event expands
COP 16 will bring together the global funding community, WCS's Dr. Emily Darling tells Reuters, "to say we’re still in the fourth bleaching event, these are happening back to back. …. What are we going to do about it?”
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Time for Urgent Action on Biodiversity in Colombia
Although it seems bleak, writes WCS's Dr. Susan Lieberman for PBS Nature, vast areas on our planet remain that evince high ecological integrity—functioning as they should and helping to mitigate climate change; they must be conserved.
Act NowCanada
Target One of the Global Biodiversity Framework calls on countries to plan and manage all areas to reduce biodiversity loss. WCS Canada’s scientific research in some of Canada’s most remote landscapes supports proactive conservation policy development, land-use planning and education across the country. In the Arctic, for instance, our team is working on the impact of marine shipping/ocean noise on marine mammals and making recommendations on the Northwest Passage shipping corridor. In addition, our Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) program enables biodiversity conservation to be more easily integrated into planning and management decisions. KBAs are already being used in the country's most foundational policy strategies, including the National Biodiversity Strategy and Environment & Climate Change Canada Protected Areas Strategy.
This program supports the 30x30 goal, as well. KBAs can guide where 30x30 can be implemented for greatest impact—namely in areas that are important for biodiversity and ecosystem function. On 30x30, and safeguarding ecological integrity, WCS Canada is also supporting the identification and development of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) and regional planning processes in the Ontario Northern Boreal (e.g. North French River Watershed), Yukon, and the Western Arctic.
Video from WCS Canada
"Playing our part to achieve this vision"
Philippines
In June, the Philippines, supported by WCS and others, held a two-day event on the National Coral Reef Program, which aims to create policies on Philippine coral reef conservation and management. This is in line with the GBF’s mandate to identify and protect high-integrity ecosystems.
“How do we balance conservation with food security and sustained income, especially for the most vulnerable populations?” asked WCS Philippines Country Director Kate Lim at the event. “How do we plan for future climate change scenarios and support our kapwa Pilipino (neighbors) when many of us live paycheck to paycheck? These are practical questions that we must remember as we continue our discussions on strengthening efforts to protect coral reefs.”
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WCS Philippines Country Director Kate Lim speaks at event for National Coral Reef Program.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Meet WCS Colombia’s Catalina Gutierrez
As Country Director, Catalina’s role is to lead a team of 80 experts, making measurable impacts for people and animals. Right now, she says, everyone is talking about biodiversity and hosting this event.
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