The 11th COP to the Convention on Biological Diversity and beyond

Marianne Manuel, Mahima Jaini, Sahir Advani, Aarthi Sridhar

Over 160 countries are signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is an agreement dating from 5th June, 1992, that legally binds governments to protect their natural resources. The CDB sets forth guidelines and targets intended to help signatory nations meet mutually agreed upon objectives of conservation and sustainable biodiversity use and fair and equitable benefits sharing from genetic resource use. The legally binding nature of the CBD provides a useful platform for environmental and civil society groups to influence national and international environmental policies and action.

Dakshin Foundation, along with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) and the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) participated in the 11th Conference of Parties (COP) to the CBD held in Hyderabad in 2012. In collaboration with the above partners, we organised a side-event on Women in Biodiversity at this COP that addressed 1) whether ground-level gender relations and women’s experiences reflected the efficacy of the CBD and 2) the role of civil society and governments in strengthening female community leadership and participation in natural resource governance and decision-making.

In addition to this event, we also collaborated with our partners to produce position papers on various fisheries management and conservation issues, for distribution at the CBD.

Publications

• Biological invasions of marine ecosystems: concerns for tropical nations
• Taking it from the top: managing apex predator fisheries in India
• Mariculture and food production: sustaining the promise
• Monitoring with logic and illogic: a case for democratising observation in fisheries
• Managing fisheries in an ocean of bycatch