The resumed session of the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took place from February 25 to 27, 2025, at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the Eternal City of Rome, Italy, attended by more that 150 countries whose aim was to address unresolved issues from COP 16 in Cali Colombia in November 2024.
Parties discussed the five remaining agenda items at the resumed CBD COP16. These remaining decisions are important for the timely implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) by ensuring that financial resources are in place, progress can be tracked in a standardized way, and collaboration is undertaken with other conventions.
Towards the last couple of hours of Thursday 27th February, plenary resumed at 10:30pm and adopted the decision on resource mobilization, followed by decisions on the financial mechanism, the GBF monitoring framework, mechanisms for Planning, Monitoring, Reporting and Review, and the remaining agenda items, as well as the meeting reports for the Convention and the protocols. Parties could not agree to decisions on agenda item on Multi-year Programme of Work up to 2030, thus was deferred for consideration at CBD COP 17.
A significant milestone of the resumed CBD COP was the agreement to mobilize at least $200 billion annually by 2030 to support biodiversity conservation, particularly in developing countries. As the COP president Susana Muhamad brought down the gavel on the agreement outlining a roadmap for nature finance, parties broke into applause after finally reaching an agreement. Muhamad called it a “historic day”, adding “We achieved the adoption of the first global plan to finance the conservation of life on Earth.” Countries also agreed for the first time to a permanent arrangement for providing biodiversity finance to developing countries, future proofing the flow of funds past 2050.
The conference was attending by nine Pacific Island Countries namely the Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, and Vanuatu. The Pacific focused on four agenda items and worked together to have their voices heard at the conference. The Cook Islands lead agenda items on Cooperation with other conventions, which was adopted in the early hours of Friday morning.
Despite these advancements, the challenge comes down to each party to the convention on biodiversity to implement these key decisions and commit to a transformative action stressing the importance of finance to achieving the global biodiversity goal to conserve life on Earth.
The conference was attended by Director of National Environment Service – Mr Halatoa Fua, Environment Stewardship Division Manager – Ms Elizabeth Munro and Biodiversity Coordinator -Ms Jessie Nicholson.
