Ashraf AboArafe
The Kingdom’s delegation to the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP 16), in Colombia, affirmed the Kingdom’s commitment to strengthening global efforts to preserve biodiversity and achieve the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Framework, and called on the participating delegations to the 16th Conference of the Parties to Combat Desertification, hosted by Riyadh, during the period from December 2 to 13.
During the conference, which recently concluded, the Kingdom renewed its commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative.
At the conclusion of the conference, the States Parties reviewed their progress in achieving the goals set in the Kunming-Montreal Framework, which aims to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030, reflecting the commitment of the international community to enhance joint efforts to protect biodiversity and ensure the sustainability of natural resources for future generations.
The Kingdom’s delegation’s agenda, headed by the CEO of the National Center for Wildlife Development, Dr. Muhammad Qurban, included meetings, negotiations and building international partnerships to support national efforts to enrich biodiversity and enhance environmental sustainability.
The delegation’s agenda at the conference, which was hosted by the Colombian city of Cali with the participation of delegates from 196 countries, including 140 ministers and seven presidents, included the 16th Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the 11th Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the 5th Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources And the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use, in addition to the high-level meeting that discusses topics related to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The participations also included coordination meetings for the Asia-Pacific region, Arab countries and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, plenary sessions, activities of working groups and contact groups, and the announcement of national biodiversity targets.
The Saudi delegation organized a number of side events that reviewed the Kingdom’s efforts in preserving biodiversity, propagating and re-establishing endangered species, introducing national initiatives and programs, in addition to expressing views on documents in line with national considerations.
The Kingdom participated in the exhibition accompanying the conference with an interactive pavilion that illustrates the richness of ecosystems and biodiversity, and reviews national efforts in development and conservation to achieve environmental sustainability, as well as highlighting the Kingdom’s hosting of the United Nations Conference to Combat Desertification next December.
The head of the Kingdom’s delegation to the conference, Dr. Mohammed Qurban, explained in his speech at the high-level plenary session that the Kingdom announced the 30X30 initiative, which aims to protect 30% of the Kingdom’s land and marine areas by 2030, indicating that this initiative is a pillar and a major tool for achieving the third goal of the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework.
Dr. Qurban added that the Kingdom launched the Protected Areas System Plan during its hosting of the 10th IUCN Regional Forum for West Asia last September, to be a comprehensive roadmap for establishing and managing the Kingdom’s reserves and achieving the 30X30 goal.
In the Kingdom’s delegation’s speech at the session “Synergy between Biodiversity and Climate Change: From Science to Action”, Dr. Muhammad Qurban stressed that the Kingdom is committed to adopting a transformational approach in which the importance of preserving the environment, biodiversity and climate intersect to enhance flexible and sustainable progress, noting that the Kingdom announced last September in New York City the three Rio Conventions in cooperation with international partners, thus unifying the parties under a common agenda that goes beyond individual mandates and enhances collaborative impact.
Dr. Qurban explained that the work plan for the upcoming 16th Conference of the Parties in Riyadh will focus on highlighting the harmony between the files of nature conservation, biodiversity and climate, indicating that the plan includes tangible and measurable goals.
On the sidelines of the conference, the head of the Kingdom’s delegation, Dr. Muhammad Qurban, met with a number of officials and specialists from various countries around the world, including: Director General of the French Agency for Biodiversity, Olivier Thibault, CEO of Nature Finance Company, Dr. Simon Zadek, and Director of the World Coral Reef Fund, Pierre Bardot.
The Kingdom’s delegation also received two certificates of accession of the King Salman bin Abdulaziz Royal Reserve and the Ibex Reserve affiliated with the National Center for Wildlife Development to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Green List.
At the beginning of the conference, the Kingdom’s delegation delivered the statement of the Arab Group as the group’s chair in the current session of the conference. The statement, which represents all Arab countries for the first time in biodiversity conferences, came to unify the Arab position on related environmental issues.
The Arab statement called for recognizing the role of local communities, women, youth and people with special needs in protecting ecosystems, and taking into account the national contexts and cultural and economic dimensions of each country when formulating and implementing environmental policies.
The statement reviewed the Arab efforts to preserve biodiversity and the environment, which are being undertaken by many Arab countries, such as the Green Middle East Initiative, the Green Belt Project to Combat Desertification, the Arab Initiative for Environment and Sustainable Development, and the Arab region’s hosting, represented by the Kingdom, of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which will be held in Riyadh next December.
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