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Colombia has just paid off a debt. Despite being the host of the Global Conference on Biological Diversity, COP16, which is taking place in the city of Cali, the country had been delayed in presenting its national biodiversity action plan, the document that contains the guide on what must be done between now and 2030 to reduce the loss of species, plants and ecosystems. It is a commitment that Colombia acquired, like 196 other countries, at the previous Conference, COP15, held in Montreal, Canada, in 2022. There the nations not only created a global framework of 23 goals to stop this loss, but they established that at this COP16 they should present how to land them at the national level. The figures so far are somewhat discouraging: only 35 of the 196 countries that are part of the agreement.
The plan – which was presented by the vice minister of the Environment, Mauricio Cabrera, while the minister of the portfolio, Susana Muhammad, assumed her position as president of the COP16– is a thorough one. It has six national goals, 30 strategic actions, 89 indicators, and gives functions to 15 of the 19 ministries and all regions. He explains that, to fulfill 84% of what he seeks, 76.5 trillion pesos (19,435 million dollars) would be needed by 2030. “To review this document, 23,000 people participated and consulted,” Cabrera explained. , who added that the plan is interconnected with other essential policies of the country, such as international climate commitments, the National Development Plan or the implementation of the Peace Agreement signed with the extinct guerrilla of the FARC in 2016.
In short, among the six objectives are that at least 19 million hectares – continental or coastal – are managed from the perspective of climate change and biodiversity; that another 5 million hectares be converted to sustainable production models or restored; that 3% of GDP comes from biodiversity; that the flow of treated wastewater reaches 68%; and that 34% of the territory is under some form of protection.
Although the previous Government, that of Ivan Duque, had said that this percentage had already been reached with the protection of 37% of marine ecosystems and 31% of terrestrial areas, Catalina Góngora, Public Policy leader of Nature conservation (TNC), explains that the novelty is that the new plan also includes inland waters. “It’s something catalytic,” he points out.
The sixth and final objective is to finance the plan, which will require an investment of approximately 10.9 trillion pesos (2,776 million dollars) each year. Currently, according to calculations by the Comptroller General of the Republic mentioned in the document, about 41% of public financing to manage biodiversity in Colombia comes from the national government, 32% from the territorial level, 22% from environmental authorities and the 5% of royalty resources. “It is estimated that around 65% of the financing requirements for 2030 would be covered by public resources,” they warn.
As Cabrera recalled, executing this biodiversity plan also implies reevaluating the perverse incentives given to agricultural, energy and tourism activities that end up harming biological diversity. “Harmful finances still represent 7% of the country’s GDP,” explained Carolina Díaz, director of Environment and Sustainable Development of the National Planning Department.
Although the challenge that Colombia will have during the next six years is enormous, among the people who move through the COP16 there is a respite from the plan already existing, and one with such detailed indicators. Ximena Barrera, director of Government Relations and International Affairs at WWF Colombia, explained to this newspaper that it is a promising strategy that highlights how communities, the environmental sector, NGOs and subnational governments were involved to make the decisions.
“We must celebrate this commitment,” adds Góngora, aware of the challenges that lie ahead, especially in this first step of protecting freshwater ecosystems. “Currently Colombia lacks detailed mapping of rivers and adequate protection mechanisms for these ecosystems. The current schemes do not adequately consider the aquatic systems, their connectivity and their dynamism,” he adds, and remembers that one of the things that this plan also recognizes is that, to move it forward, the government of local communities, Afro and African, is needed. indigenous.
