COP 11 biodiversity: Environmental groups now look beyond Hyderabad and Cop 11 to expose business-driven bio-economy and promote the real biodiversity agenda of the United Nations

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: Environmental groups now look beyond Hyderabad and
Cop 11 to expose business-driven bio-economy and promote the real
biodiversity agenda of the United Nations.

Civil society, NGOs, and grassroots environmental groups belonging to
the CBD Alliance on Monday sent a strong message to the delegates
gathered here for COP -11 to focus on getting things done, and
implement the treaty.

“The CBD process should bring sharp focus on implementation of the
commitments made by governments over the past 20 years”, said S Faizi,
of the Indian Biodiversity Forum. “COP10 in Nagoya moved the
biodiversity agenda significantly forward.”

Simone Lovera, executive director of the Global Forest Coalition,
rejected corporate-driven agendas to promote ‘bio-economy’ and the
financialisation of nature through perverse incentives like subsidies
for biofuels, dangerous experiments in synthetic biology, genetically
modified trees and geo-engineering.

Gunn-Britt Retter of the Saami Council said, “The importance of forest
and agricultural biodiversity to the survival of indigenous peoples
cannot be over emphasized. Our food security, health and economic
wellbeing have a direct relationship with our forest and agricultural
biodiversity. The current emphasis on economic growth as a solution to
the global economic crisis has affected indigenous peoples in far
greater and disproportionate ways”.

Marine and coastal biodiversity is a priority focus area of COP11, and
the theme of International Year of Biodiversity 2012.  Ramya
Rajagopalan of the International Collective in Support of Fish Workers
said, “The serious threats to our oceans and coasts are well known.
Indigenous peoples and local communities are at the forefront of the
struggles and initiatives to protect coastal and marine resources.”