COP17 Biodiversity Negotiations Enter Critical Phase Amid Funding and Indigenous Rights Clashes

COP17 Biodiversity Negotiations Enter Critical Phase Amid Funding and Indigenous Rights Clashes

From L-R: CBD Deputy Executive Secretary Jihyun Lee; Christine Estrada, CBD Secretariat; and COP 17 President Hambardzum Matevosyan, Minister of Environment, Armenia. PHOTO/ IISD/ENB – Mike Muzurakis.

By PATRICK MAYOYO

newsdesk@africaeconews.co.ke

As the 2026 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP17) entered its final stages, delegates achieved notable progress on key biodiversity conservation, biosafety, and access to genetic resources frameworks. However, persistent disagreements over financial mechanisms, agricultural practices, and the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities continued to complicate negotiations.

Working Group I focused on critical issues under the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS), while Working Group II addressed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the broader Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Contact groups also convened to address the risk assessment and management of living modified organisms, the financial mechanism, future work under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and Article 8(j), which recognizes the vital contributions and traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs).

An evening stocktaking plenary convened to review reports, address organizational matters, and adopt decisions on several key issues under the 17th Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 17), the 12th meeting of the parties to the Cartagena Protocol (CP-MOP 12), and the sixth meeting of the parties to the Nagoya Protocol (NP-MOP 6).

Under the Nagoya Protocol, delegates approved a revised text on monitoring and reporting, following a minor amendment to streamline compliance.

Discussions regarding assessment and review reached consensus on encouraging nations to develop user guidelines and make community protocols, along with access and benefit-sharing procedures, accessible through the ABS Clearing-House.

Delegates also agreed to promote the use of existing tools, such as model contractual clauses and codes of conduct, while strengthening engagement with Indigenous Peoples, user organizations, and other key stakeholders.

However, provisions concerning the global multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism remained unresolved, with several paragraphs referred to a contact group for further deliberation.

Delegates trying to find common ground on the margins of Working Group I. PHOTO/ IISD/ENB – Mike Muzurakis.

Negotiations on enhancing implementation also exposed deep divisions over whether to retain references to Article 10 of the Nagoya Protocol and how to frame cooperation between international environmental agreements. The text was ultimately approved with disputed provisions left in brackets.

On financing, delegates agreed to recommend that the Conference of the Parties request the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to consider providing adequate, accessible, and predictable funding for implementing the Nagoya Protocol, taking into account national priorities and the special needs of least developed countries and small island developing states.

Under the Cartagena Protocol, parties made progress toward strengthening predictable and dedicated financing for biosafety while simplifying access to funding for eligible countries.

The proposed recommendations call on the GEF to improve funding arrangements to support the full and effective implementation of the protocol, while taking into account the unique needs of vulnerable countries.

Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, delegates made progress on biodiversity and agriculture, agreeing on language that encourages countries to integrate the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of soil biodiversity into national planning instruments, in line with relevant GBF targets and national circumstances.

They also backed stronger coordination between agricultural, environmental, and health sectors, emphasizing technical assistance, rural extension services, and the active participation of farmer organizations, particularly smallholders, family farmers, and agroecological producers.

The Secretariat was invited to collaborate with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, building on existing initiatives and avoiding duplication. Delegates also supported ongoing efforts to develop harmonized methodologies for monitoring soil biodiversity, prioritizing data from national soil monitoring systems.

However, consensus remained elusive on financial support for soil biodiversity research and monitoring, reforming subsidies and incentives harmful to biodiversity, and cooperation on capacity-building.

Disagreements also emerged over references to pollution and its effects on soil biodiversity, prompting the chair to establish a “Friends of the Chair” group to resolve outstanding issues.

From L-R: Wadzanayi Goredema-Mandivenyi, CBD Secretariat; COP 17 President Hambardzum Matevosyan, Minister of Environment, Armenia; and CBD Executive Secretary Astrid Schomaker. PHOTO/ IISD/ENB – Mike Muzurakis.

Negotiations on Article 8(j) highlighted the critical importance of securing the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in biodiversity decision-making.

This conference marks the first since the establishment of the CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Article 8(j), a milestone intended to strengthen the recognition of Indigenous knowledge, traditional practices, and contributions to biodiversity conservation.

Delegates are working to agree on the body’s rules of procedure, including the number of Indigenous representatives on its Bureau, their national recognition, and regional representation.

These discussions reflect the challenge of balancing the body’s party-led nature with meaningful Indigenous participation, including questions relating to self-nomination, national sovereignty, and the right to self-determination.

Outside the negotiating rooms, initiatives such as the launch of the third edition of the Local Biodiversity Outlooks highlighted the significant contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to implementing the global biodiversity framework.

As negotiations continue on Article 8(j), resource mobilization, digital sequence information, and biodiversity and climate change, delegates face the task of translating areas of agreement into concrete decisions while resolving remaining political and financial differences.

The evening plenary’s adoption of decisions on less contentious issues offered a measure of progress as the conference moved into its next phase.

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