Kinship Conservation Fellows Participate in COP15

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When partners come together biodiversity financing can work.

Nine Kinship Conservation Fellows participated in various events of The 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Montreal. COP15 gathered government delegations from around the world to agree on a framework for global action to halt and reverse nature loss. The Fellows attended COP15 as part of the government delegations negotiating the final global biodiversity framework, led and participated in side events that shared their work and the impact of the agreement on future conservation efforts, and made connections to elevate the impact of their work.

Here are views on the value of the conference from some of the Fellows.

Dawn Carr (2019)
Country represented: Canada
Organization represented: Nature Conservancy of Canada
Contact: Dawn.Carr@natureconservancy.ca

What were the reflections you left with from the conference?

I attended COP15 for Biological Diversity as part of the Government of Canada Delegation and led the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s engagement throughout the conference. Upon reflection, I am so grateful that the level of ambition achieved within the final Kunming-Montreal Agreement was strong, measurable, and more equitably implementable among all parties through better funding mechanisms. It was also inspiring and meaningful to witness Indigenous-led conservation action be recognized as an essential path to success!

What opportunities do you find in your country / region for the “Loss and Damage Fund” that was agreed upon?

The loss and damage fund were agreed to during COP27 on Climate Change. While I didn’t actively participate at COP27, the financing outcomes of COP15 were similarly supported by Canada. On the first day of COP15, Canada announced $350 million in new international finance for biodiversity to push a more equitable finance agenda. This represents new and additional funding to previous efforts from Canada, in particular, its existing 2021 climate finance commitment of $5.3 billion over 5 years.

How do you think this fund can support market-based conservation?

Financing options are essential for countries to adapt to and mitigate against climate change and biodiversity loss, and countries that have been the drivers behind these two planetary crises will now enable markets to grow in developing countries to grow capacity and innovation that will spur new economic opportunities in support of nature.

Learning from the COP15 experience, how do you think that a Kinship Fellows presence (panel) can be secured for future global events?

Getting organized EARLY is essential! Allow adequate time to plan for inclusive involvement, and to understand equitable funding needs for all who have an interest in attending, requires time and a commitment to the Fellowship. By encouraging Fellows to collaborate on ideas, presentation submissions, and opportunities to share work experiences during CBD, UNFCCC or other Global IUCN events can spur initiatives and leadership among the Fellows community. Clear guidelines about what Kinship expects to occur in the lead up to, during, and after conference participation would also be very useful. Last, having a Kinship Conservation Fellow in situ where UN or IUCN Conventions occur is also helpful to understand processes, panel/presentation opportunities, and logistics.

Yuri Rugai Marinho (2020)
Country represented: Brazil
Organization represented: ECCON Soluções Ambientais
Contact: yuri@ecconsa.com.br

What were the reflections you left with from the conference?

I realized that the countries are getting closer to finding a way to demonstrate the scientific, economic, and political consequences of losing biodiversity on the planet. I believe that not only climate change issues will be sufficiently reported in the next few years, but also biodiversity issues. It was a great opportunity to discuss internationally about PES, carbon credits, and biodiversity credits, as well as to discuss the Brazilian scenario on this topic. Many discussions and side events had biodiversity goals and biodiversity credits as one of the main difficulties.

What opportunities do you find in your country / region for the “Loss and Damage Fund” that was agreed upon?

I have not identified real opportunities in Brazil related to the fund. But, the private sector in Brazil is already discussing this topic, and I hope that we find opportunities.

How do you think this fund can support market-based conservation?

I believe that the fund may support scientific and economic research, as well as technical events and projects, which are the first steps in this path.

Learning from the COP experience, how do you think that a Kinship Conservation Fellows presence (panel) can be secured for future global events?

I believe that the Kinship Conservation Fellows have deep knowledge and experience in their areas. They receive training (during the Fellows program) in market-based solutions, which is the main characteristic of the recent international environmental agreements. So, Kinship Conservation Fellows have a lot to share and their opinions may help to reach good results. I presented the methodology in the Carbonflor project to the Fellows Alonso Martinez and Liliana Martinez, who greatly contributed with suggestions and new ideas. This is a resource that the Kinship Conservation Fellows program has.

ECCON Soluções, is a company that developed a methodology of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) based on forest carbon and biodiversity under a project named Carbonflor. The methodology was presented at a side event during COP15 called “Payment for Environmental Services (PES) panel: a connection between biodiversity and climate change” in the Business and Finance space at Place Quebec.

Alonso Martínez (2020)
Country represented: Mexico
Organization represented: UNDP-BIOFIN
Contact: alonso.martinez@undp.org

What opportunities do you find in your country / region for the “Loss and Damage Fund” that was agreed?

I participated in the CBD COP, but not in the UNFCCC

How do you think this fund can support market-based conservation?

Apparently, the Loss and Damage Fund does not have any funds yet or clear rules of operation, but I was not in COP27.

Learning from the COP experience, how do you think that a Kinship Fellows presence (panel) can be secured for future global events?

A feeling of enthusiasm was felt during the first day of the meeting when delegates from around the world went to Montreal to discuss and adopt the new Global Biodiversity Framework. As the days went by, negotiations started to halt and become complicated due to the inability to advance in contentious topics such as resource mobilization. This topic remained one of the most difficult to advance and, in the end, did not reach the desired outcome. This made me think about how we must reflect on our role as Kinship Conservation Fellows. We must start thinking about the full diversification of resources, especially those from unconventional sources. We have the knowledge, expertise, network, and tools to do so, and we should strive to be agents of innovation in our context.

Even though I am a true believer in multilateralism and international relations, getting to listen to what other Kinship Conservation Fellows were doing outside the negotiation halls was a breath of fresh air. I was able to attend some of their side events and informal meetings where they were already out reaching their efforts and achievements to interested stakeholders who were keen to listen and even invest in their ideas. This confirmed how much is going on outside the formal process of the convention.

In that sense, the questions remain, how do we scale up and replicate these incredible examples? And how we could mainstream them into policy to make them the rule and not the exception?

Liliana Martinez (2020)
Country represented: Colombia
Organization represented: South Pole
Contact: lianmarsa@gmail.com

What were the reflections you left with from the conference?

My main reflection is that today biodiversity is not only on the agenda of governments, but also on the agenda of the private sector and civil society. Although for many it is not yet a clear topic to digest, there is an urgency in the call to action, to start developing projects that will help halt biodiversity loss, while helping to restore degraded ecosystems. It is time for each of us (personally and in the organizations we represent) to innovate conservation and funding strategies, to work collaboratively and constructively, and to share openly what has and has not worked for us. These lessons learned will help us not to repeat efforts, but to scale up and replicate actions that work well.

What opportunities do you find in your country / region for the “Loss and Damage Fund” that was agreed?

This fund was agreed at COP27 on Climate Change and ratified at COP15 on Biodiversity. It is an important way forward in terms of justice for developing countries and becomes an opportunity for them to access resources by thinking beyond mitigation and opening the door to adaptation, which is important in our countries to reduce climate risks for our communities. Although several aspects still need to be defined, it is a good initiative that will open up financing beyond the traditional financing mechanisms of payments for emissions reductions and/or carbon credits, among others.

How do you think this fund can support market-based conservation?

This fund opens up the opportunity for market-based conservation, because it invites us to think outside of the conventional and more commonplace of payment for results and carbon credits, ETS, associated with mitigation. It is an opportunity for innovation in financial mechanisms associated with adaptation and securing resources for long-term, government-funded projects. This opens the door to public-private partnerships, to generate financial mechanisms for the implementation of the resources.

Learning from the COP experience, how do you think that a Kinship Fellows presence (panel) can be secured for future global events?

I see Kinship as an opportunity for the different Fellows working on market-based mechanisms for biodiversity protection to present lessons learned, exchange approaches and promote the scaling up of successful projects. Even prior to the COP or in the two years following, work can be done to share challenges and seek solutions to developing projects that reflect the incorporation of improvements proposed by other Fellows. From an operational point of view, I think it also becomes an opportunity for Fellows, especially those working with the private sector, to manage accreditations, as it is usually easier for NGOs and governments as a step in this COP.

Other Kinship Conservation Fellows attendees:

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