The fifteenth meeting of the conference of the parties will be held in two phases. The first phase took place virtually from 11 to 15 October and contained a high-level segment from 12-13 October. Phase-2 will be an in-person meeting from 25 April- 8 May 2022.Â
The conference of parties is a governing body of the Convention and advances execution of the Convention through the decisions the governing body takes in its meetings. The COP has held only 14 meetings until now.
The first ordinary meeting of the conference of Parties to the Convention on biological diversity was held from 28 November- 9 December 1994 in Nassau, Bahamas.Â
The first extraordinary meeting on the conference of parties to the Convention on biological diversity was held in Cartagena, Colombia, and Montreal, Canada, from 22-23 February 1999 and 24-28 January 2000.
Agenda of the meeting
The outline of such meetings is very diverse, reflecting the program of work the Conference of Parties has established for itself. It was decided in the various meetings held over the years about the implementation of the program and the development of the thematic work programs.
The various themes of the different meetings include:
The first ordinary meeting had guidance on the financial mechanism and medium-term work program as their topics for discussion.
The second regular meeting had marine and coastal biodiversity, access to genetic resources, conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and biosafety on the agenda.
The third ordinary meeting had agricultural biodiversity, financial resources and mechanism, identification, monitoring and assessment, and intellectual property rights on their list.
The fourth regular meeting had Inland water ecosystems, Review of the operations of the Convention; Article 8j and related issues and Benefit-sharing were the highly discussed topics.
The fifth ordinary meeting had dry land, Mediterranean, arid, semi-arid, grassland, and savannah ecosystems; Sustainable use, including tourism; and access to genetic resources as their subject matter.
The sixth ordinary meeting had Forest ecosystems, Alien species; Benefit-sharing; and Strategic plan 2002-2010 as the topic. The seventh regular meeting had Mountain ecosystems; Protected areas;
Transfer of technology and technology cooperation in the list of items. The eighth ordinary meeting had Island biodiversity; Biological diversity of dry and sub-humid lands; Global Taxonomy Initiative; Access and benefit-sharing (Article 15);
Article 8(j) and related provisions; Communication, education, and public awareness (Article 13) as meeting theme. The ninth ordinary meeting had Agricultural biodiversity; Global Strategy for Plant Conservation; Invasive alien species; Forest biodiversity; Incentive measures; Ecosystem approach;
Progress in implementing the Strategic Plan and progress towards the 2010 target and relevant Millennium Development Goals; Financial resources and the financial mechanism.
The fifteenth meeting will discuss and review the achievement and execution of the CBD’s premeditated plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.
The final decision on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will be taken together with findings on capacity building and resource mobilization.
As part of the process to develop the post-2020 framework, negotiations will be held in the context of an open-ended inter-sessional working group.
The first working group meeting met in Nairobi, Kenya, on 27-30 August 2019. The second meeting will be held in Kunming, China, on 24-28 February 2020, and the third meeting is expected to convene on 27-31 July 2020 in Colombia.
Additionally, the Convention’s other inter-sessional and subsidiary bodies, including the Working Group on Article 8(j), the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), will address aspects of the post-2020 framework of relevance to their mandates.
