The resumed sessions of the Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16.2) concluded in February in Rome, Italy. All of the outstanding items were agreed upon, including new finance mechanisms and an updated monitoring framework to track implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) convened in Rome, Italy, from 25-27 February to finalise the outstanding items from the original meeting in Cali, Colombia in October.
Parties were not able to reach agreement on areas of resource mobilisation and finalising the Monitoring Framework in Colombia, as they lost quorum when Parties had to leave to catch their flights home. The Rome meeting was able to finalise these topics, meaning that Parties can move forward in their contributions to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
Resource mobilisation
The majority of the framework for resource mobilisation was discussed but not agreed upon at COP16 in Cali; now it has been finalised and approved. It includes an agreement to mobilise resources from various sources, including the private sector, government budgets, and multilateral development banks. Now, governments will need to work on the mobilising the 200 billion dollars of funding agreed upon. Twenty billion of this needs to be mobilized in 2025.
Parties agreed on a roadmap for establishing a global financial mechanism for biodiversity, but it is not yet clear what this will look like. The Global Environment Fund has been the interim financial mechanism for this, but a long-term solution will be discussed in the next few years. The GEF could be chosen as a permanent mechanism, but with some changes, with some Parties calling for a new fund to be created that is specifically designed for the KMGBF.
Cali Fund Launched
The Cali fund was launched at the margins of COP16.2. The Cali Fund is a voluntary fund which makes it possible for large companies that benefit from the use of digital sequence information of genetic resources to pay in a share of their profits towards halting biodiversity loss.
Fifty percent of the funds collected in the Cali Fund are expected to be allocated to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, however it is not yet clear how this will be administered or whether these funds will need to go via government agencies. Another element to be determined is how much corporations will voluntarily hand over of the $1 billion expected yearly contributions, and if countries will adopt the national legislation needed to implement it. Sectors that will be targeted for inclusion include agriculture, biotech, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and artificial intelligence.
Monitoring Framework for the KMGBF adopted
The Monitoring Framework – which sets out how Parties will report on their biodiversity actions and how progress will be measured – was approved at COP16.2. This means that Parties can now move forward on how they will be monitoring progress of the implementation of the KMGBF goals and targets. This includes their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and national reports, which they need to submit to the CBD secretariat by February 2026.
Importantly, the revised and updated monitoring framework now includes a new headline indicator on land use change and land tenure in the traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, recognising the significant role that these territories play in biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
The Planning Monitoring Reporting and Review (PMRR) was also finalised, and in a new approach, allows for contributions for non-Parties. This hopes to support the implementation of the KMGBF through a whole society approach, one of the key principles of the Framework. It also includes a plan to produce a global review and report on the implementation of the KMGBF by COP17 in 2026.
Intersessional meetings for the CBD will take place in Panama in October 2025, including the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), and the first meetings of the new Subsidiary Body on Article 8(j) (SB8j), which focuses on Indigenous Peoples’ roles and contributions to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.