Species protection

UN conference ends without agreement on financing

The conference was extended by one day, but the desired success could not be achieved.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Luis ACOSTA)

"Nobody can be satisfied with this result", regrets Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler after the UN species conservation conference that ended on Saturday. As numerous delegations had already left the conference venue early, no agreement could be reached on the financing issues.

The President of COP16, Colombian Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, declared the conference over on Saturday as the necessary quorum for voting could no longer be reached. The conference was supposed to end on Friday, but Muhamad had extended it in order to reach an agreement on the financing of species protection - but in vain. However, the meeting is reportedly to be continued at a later date.

On the whole, the negotiations were between delegates from richer countries and delegates from poorer countries. A biodiversity fund proposed by Muhamad to finance the global protection of species was rejected by the European Union, Switzerland and Japan. Developing countries, in turn, criticized that they were not sufficiently taken into account by the existing compensation mechanisms and demanded a fund explicitly for biodiversity. According to recent studies, more than a quarter of known plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. 

Previously, at least a partial agreement had been reached. The delegates agreed to the creation of a fund for the sharing of profits arising from the use of genetic data from plants and animals. The so-called Cali Fund provides for companies or other users of the data who exploit it commercially to "pay part of their profits or revenues into the global fund", as stated in the agreement.

Even partial agreement is not binding
Above a certain income level, profiteers would have to contribute one percent of their profits or 0.1 percent of their income to the fund, according to the agreement. Under the supervision of the UN, half of the fund's resources would then go to the countries in which the species occur and the other half to the indigenous peoples concerned. However, the agreement is not binding for the sectors mentioned in the document, including the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. 

Gewessler with a critical assessment
Environment Minister Gewessler drew a critical balance: "Part of it has been achieved, but a lot of work remains." WWF Austria called the provisional end of the conference "a bitter disappointment". "While biodiversity is in massive decline and our livelihoods are under threat, politicians lack the ambition and consistency to make real progress," said WWF expert Joschka Brangs in a press release.