BIODEV2030 at IUCN World Conservation Congress

More than 40 people from 12 of the 16 BIODEV2030 pilot countries have mobilised to attend the IUCN World Conservation Congress being held from 3 to 11 September 2021 in Marseille. The congress has allowed the project actors to share their first national results, to collectively draft the course of action to follow for the next phases and to finally meet each other!

The progress and prospects of the project were welcomed at the highest political level, not only by the countries involved in the project, as witnessed by the Minister of the Environment of Burkina Faso, but also by countries showing their willingness to join the project such as Mauritania and the Niger. They have all stressed the importance and the need for projects such as BIODEV2030, which allow reconciling biodiversity and development by developing a participative and inclusive science-based approach.

After a year and a half of implementation that was strongly impacted by the health emergency, the BIODEV2030 actors were able to meet in person and continue building the project community that had until now been mostly virtual. The five sessions organised by BIODEV2030 during this congress were built with the desire to include all of the stakeholders in this dialogue and to allow them all to share their views on each step of the programme. The richness of the exchanges has been beneficial to the country negotiators, the private sector actors and the project team, who left with renewed energy and with avenues for action for the drafting phases of upcoming commitments.

The BIODEV2030 team at the IUCN Congress in Marseille

5 Highlights of BIODEV2030 at the congress

Four of the five sessions organised by BIODEV2030 were public and integrated into the congress programme. They provided an opportunity for representatives of the public authorities of each country and the private sector actors involved in the project to present the BIODEV2030 approach applied to their countries. In addition to these four sessions there was a one-day community-building workshop focused on building skills to engage the participants in the upcoming dialogue phases.

SHOWCASING BIODEV2030 METHODOLOGY FOR REAL MAINSTREAMING: CALL FOR INVOLVEMENT

Based on the first stages of BIODEV2030 in pilot countries (scientific diagnosis of threats and selection of priority economic sectors given their impact on biodiversity and their contribution to country development), this session allowed illustrating the mobilisation of the private sector actors. Their testimonies showed their common willingness to move towards commitments with measurable effects in the sectors involved. The 6 interventions showcased the signs of concrete commitments in several sectors, such as fishing, mining, forestry and coastal area management among others.

MAINSTREAMING BIODIVERSITY IN ACTION: BIODEV2030 TRIGGERS COMMITMENTS IN AFRICA

This session allowed debating the political and technical challenges of BIODEV2030 in Africa, and was held at the highest political level – notably with the participation of the Ministers of the Environment of Burkina Faso, Mauritania and the Niger, of the Deputy Minister of the environment of Kenya and the Deputy Director General of AFD. Panellists from Mozambique, Tunisia and Senegal were able to present concrete commitments, and the panellists from Uganda and Kenya reaffirmed their country’s political support for the project, which is at the heart of a set of policy frameworks aimed at redefining the connections between natural resources and society for the Post-2020 agenda.

RANKING THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY USING INNOVATIVE TOOLS (CASE STUDY: FIJI, OCEANIA)

This virtual session focused on the implementation of BIODEV2030 in Fiji and allowed discussing the state of biodiversity and the main causes of erosion in the archipelago. The panellists presented the project’s approach, an innovative tool allowing not only the assessment of threats to biodiversity but also the sharing of experiences and the challenges of mainstreaming biodiversity protection into the country’s economic development strategies. The actors demonstrated that BIODEV2030 is a powerful tool that supports environmental laws in Fiji.

CAPACITY-BUILDING WORKSHOP TO ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS

On 8 September, 43 people involved in the BIODEV2030 project participated in a day-long strategy game aimed at reflecting on the effective mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation by the private sector. The participants took part in a role-playing game that recreated the conditions of a strategic negotiation between government agencies, political decision-makers, businesses, local communities, NGOs, investors and scientists on mining and forestry. This workshop provided a great opportunity for strengthening skills and for community-building, in which the state and private sector representatives, together with the project’s technical assistants, were exposed to the difficulties experienced by the pilot countries and tried to reflect collectively on strategies for overcoming these stumbling blocks.

HIGH-LEVEL DIALOGUE: RECONCILING BIODIVERSITY AND DEVELOPMENT – ALL COMPONENTS OF SOCIETY ARE COMMITTED!

This event was an opportunity to demonstrate the institutional commitment of different countries to the BIODEV2030 project and their desire to make it live beyond its current temporal and geographical limits. The participants unanimously considered that the mainstreaming and consideration of biodiversity in economic sectors is an essential priority and that environmental protection must be seen as a lever for development. France recalled that its diplomatic ambition is to make biodiversity protection one of the main pillars for achieving the development goals. As the WAEMU representative pointed out, the demographic, economic, energetic, climate, fiscal and democratic transitions under way in the world must push us to act quickly, following the example of Madagascar, whose three identified sectors are ready to commit to reconciling biodiversity and development.