Partner Event

Seizing the Potential of Non-State Actors for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

17 June 2021
14:00 - 15:30 CEST
Online

As countries are preparing to agree upon a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework during the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in October 2021, non-state and sub-national actors, such as cities, regions and companies, are increasingly drawing attention to their contribution to biodiversity governance. Non-state and sub-national actors set up standards and commitments, develop and share knowledge, provide funding and execute projects on the ground. Bringing non-state initiatives closer to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and involving these actors in global biodiversity governance has the potential to build positive political and societal momentum around global biodiversity conservation, foster innovative and experimental governance arrangements and break current gridlocks to enable countries to take more ambitious biodiversity goals. To provide more visibility to the contributions of non-state actors, COP14 in Sharm El Sheikh in 2018 saw the launch of the Action Agenda for Nature and People in the run up to COP15. A current consultation process led by the CBD Secretariat aims to explore how the Action Agenda should develop after the new global biodiversity framework is adopted. In light of the important contributions non-state actors can make to implementing the new framework, it will be key to identify what form such voluntary commitments for biodiversity should take and how the Action Agenda could become a meaningful pillar in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

To address these questions, the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, supported by adelphi, is organizing a series of events to facilitate discussion among a selected group of experts. The three session will discuss the role of non-state and subnational actors in the run up to Open Ended Working Group 3 and COP15 with respect to non-state action at landscape level; climate and biodiversity action in the urban context; and monitoring and reporting of non-state action. The sessions will be held under Chatham House rules.

Session I: “Seizing the Landscape Opportunity to Catalyse Transformative Biodiversity Governance”

The first session focuses on how the GBF can more actively include a landscape perspective, particularly speaking to non-state and subnational actors involved in landscape level initiatives. The session shares insights from a recent policy brief by PBL on the topic, it invites reflections and comments by key experts in the field and allows for a broader discussion in plenary. The plenary discussion will focus on strengthening the links between the GBF and non-state and subnational action at landscape level as well as on how the Action Agenda could promote landscape initiatives and attain more strategic importance in the GBF.

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