Delegates agree to establish Indigenous subsidiary body at COP16 biodiversity summit in Colombia

CALI, Colombia (AP) — Delegates came to an agreement late Friday at the United Nations conference on biodiversity to establish a subsidiary body that will include Indigenous peoples in future talks and decisions on nature conservation.

The COP16 summit hosted in Cali, Colombia, was a follow-up to the historic 2022 accord in Montreal, which includes 23 measures to save Earth's plant and animal life, including putting 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.

A measure to recognize the importance of the role of people of African descent in the protection of nature was also adopted Friday.

Negotiators struggled to find common ground on some key issues in the final week, but were able to come to a consensus after negotiating late into Friday. Global Indigenous delegations erupted into cheers and tears over the historic decision.

The decision recognizes and protects the traditional knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples and local communities for the benefit of global and national biodiversity management, said Sushil Raj, Executive Director of the Rights and Communities Global Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“It strengthens representation, coordination, inclusive decision making, and creates a space for dialogue with parties to the COP,” Raj told The Associated Press. “It promotes support for Indigenous and traditional territorial biodiversity management and furthers international human rights standards referenced in the Global Biodiversity Framework.”

The body will be formed by two co-chairs elected by COP: one nominated by U.N. parties of the regional group, and the other nominated by representatives of Indigenous peoples and local communities, the AP saw in the document.

At least one of the co-chairs will be selected from a developing country, taking into account gender balance, the document said.

“With this decision, the value of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and local communities is recognized, and a 26-year-old historical debt in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is settled,” Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister and COP16 president, posted on social media platform X shortly after the announcement.

Also adopted was an agreement to protect human health from Earth's increasing biodiversity issues. Ecosystem degradation and loss of ecological integrity directly threaten human and animal health, environmental groups say.

Pledges made by countries during the two weeks were far short of the billions needed to tackle plummeting global biodiversity, with only around $400 million in the fund.

In Montreal's summit, wealthy nations pledged to raise $20 billion in annual conservation financing for developing nations by 2025, with that number rising to $30 billion annually by 2030.

Global wildlife populations have plunged on average by 73% in 50 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London biennial Living Planet report in October.