Pakistan’s lone delegate at the UN biodiversity conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, faces significant challenges to secure funding for the country’s biodiversity goals, highlighting broader hurdles in global biodiversity financing.
With just one official delegate, represented by Naeem Ashraf Raja, director of the Biodiversity Program at the Ministry of Climate Change, at this crucial biodiversity event, which stretches over two intense weeks from early morning to late at night, it’s like attempting to read every book in a library alone. It’s a race against time for Raja who is navigating numerous group discussions and making sure his presence is felt in some.
In contrast, the West African country of Cameroon, which is nearly half the size of Pakistan, is represented by six delegates, ensuring their participation in crucial working group discussions.
As the COP16 enters its second week, final decisions on financial mechanisms of global biodiversity are imminent. Developing countries are relying heavily on the Global Biodiversity Framework Early Action Support (GBF-EAS) project to update their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).
KMGBF’s target 19 mandates developed countries to provide $20 billion annually by 2025, rising to $30 billion by 2030, for developing countries to restore biodiversity. To meet this objective, a Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) was established in August 2023 under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) but it has received only $250 million so far.
GBFF operations via GEF are contentious. Developing countries, including Pakistan, seek easier access to these funds, which Raja said was currently not possible.
Aaron Vermeulen, Finance Practice Leader at WWF, told The Citizenry that the Green Climate Fund for UN’s convention for Climate Change supports nature-based solution projects such as forest planting and wetland protection, in line with GBFF target 8. It operates independently and doesn’t go through GEF. Vermeulen noted uncertainty about the biodiversity funds in the Green Climate Fund but emphasized that creating a new fund wouldn’t solve developing countries issues with GEF. Instead, WWF supports easing GEF financial mechanism for these countries.
The GEF manages three United Nations convention funds set up during the 1992 Rio Summit: one each to combat desertification, addressing climate change and protecting biodiversity. Pakistan’s allocation under the biodiversity fund is $5.74 million.
Since Pakistan is still working on a calculations and gap analysis report to update its NBSAP, according to the country’s official delegate Raja, it has so far been unable to determine the exact amount of funding it requires to restore its biodiversity. “However, COP16 is not a forum to put a specific financial demand,” he added in his tired voice and puffy eyes.
So far, 35 countries have submitted their updated NBSAPs on the CBD website and 110 have submitted their updated national targets aligned with the KMGBF.
This story was produced as part of the 2024 CBD COP16 Fellowship organized by Internews' Earth Journalism Network. It was first published in The Citizenry on October 28, 2024. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Banner image: COP16 / Credit: Oonib Azam
Oonib Azam
