Latin American organizations call for urgent systemic change at COP16 biodiversity summit

Press release:

Latin American organizations call for urgent systemic change at COP16 biodiversity summit

Activists denounce lack of ambition, false solutions and corporate capture in biodiversity negotiations.

Cali, Colombia, October 31, 2024–Civil society leaders and activists at the COP16 Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia, expressed their deep concern over the lack of significant progress in the negotiations and the persistence of corporate interests that undermine biodiversity protection and climate action.

Valentina Figuera of the Global Forest Coalition (GFC) decried corporate capture of the biodiversity negotiations and emphasized the need for greater inclusion and participation of rural communities, indigenous peoples and women in decision-making.

The presence of the corporate lobby has become very evident, which is advancing by leaps and bounds, preventing the transformational change needed to protect biodiversity. For civil society organizations and movements, it’s important to strengthen alliances with those who really care for nature: Indigenous People, rural communities and women.

Silvia Ribeiro, of ETC Group and the Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME) Campaign, warned of the dangers of biodiversity markets and geoengineering.

[Market] mechanisms are false solutions that only benefit large corporations and aggravate the crisis. COP16 must strengthen the precautionary principle and prohibit the use of dangerous technologies such as geoengineering.

Paloma Jofré, of Earth in Brackets, highlighted the link between biodiversity loss and the climate crisis within the current unequal and colonialist global economic system.

The countries of the Global South are being pressured to continue exploiting their natural resources, while transnational corporations profit from the destruction of nature. We must decolonize global financial structures and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples. …Local communities suffer a double injustice on their territories, first when extractive activities are imposed and then with the imposition of these compensation projects.

Osver Polo Carrasco of Climate Action Network-Latin America stressed the importance of national biodiversity plans and climate finance.

Countries are not fulfilling their biodiversity commitments neither with the submission of their national plans, nor with the adequate provision of funding for their implementation. We need concrete actions to protect ecosystems and stop extractivism.

Finally, Izabely Miranda, from the Movement for Popular Sovereignty in Mining, MAM, from Brazil, stressed the role of social mobilization in putting pressure on governments and negotiation spaces. She announced that Brazilian organizations are preparing to hold the People’s Summit in Belém do Pará, Brazil, next year, a space for autonomous civil society engagement during the COP30 on climate change. She explained “[The People’s Summit] is an essential space to give voice to the communities and demand environmental justice. We must continue organizing and fighting for a more sustainable future”.

Latin American climate justice organizations and networks call on decision-makers and governments to:

• Denounce the false solutions pushed within the CBD and UNFCCC;
• Demand an end to fossil fuels and all forms of extractivism;
• Promote solutions from the peoples and territories;
• Strengthen the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendants, particularly women and youth in all their diversity;
• Prevent corporate capture and lobbying in the negotiations;
• Convene organizations and movements of the continent and the world to articulate at the People’s Summit in Belem, Brazil, in 2025.

Media Contact

Eduardo Giesen, Coordinator DCJ-LAC, giesen.dcj@gmail.com, +56 9 9163 0995

Organizers

• DCJ-LAC, Campaign to Demand Climate Justice Latin America
• CAN LA, Climate Action Network Latin America
• FOSPA, Pan-Amazonian Social Forum
• PLACJC, Plataforma Latinoamericana y del Caribe por la Justicia Climática (Latin American and Caribbean Platform for Climate Justice)
• People’s Mobilization for Land and Climate
• Make the Polluters Pay Latin America Campaign
• GFC, Global Forest Coalition

31 Oct, 2024
Posted in Press releases