Korea to host next edition of biodiversity summit in 2014

Current conference tabled as many as 34 topics for discussion

The third and final plenary of the Eleventh Conference (COP-11) of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity here today adopted final documents on almost all agenda issues, while efforts are on to arrive on some kind of interim agreement on mobilising resources and creating a financial mechanism for the implementation of these decisions.

One of the issues adopted without any amendment is hosting of COP-12 in the second part of 2014 by the government of Republic of Korea.

The Korean representative thanked the COP Chair Jayanti Natarajan and said that Korea will provide an excellent platform for furthering the cause of conserving biodiversity.

Earlier, COP-11 chair Jayanti Natarajan put forth all the 34 items taken up by discussion by both working groups for adoption.

Bio fuels and biodiversity, global strategy for plant conservation, global taxonomy initiative, incentive measures, other matters related to biodiversity and climate change, inlands water eco systems, island biodiversity, protected areas, marine and coastal bio diversity, inland water eco system, were among those adopted by the plenary.

However there was ambiguity on the issue of resource mobilization, Draft report of the eleventh meeting, ecosysytem restoration and capacity building, which neded further negotions between parties.

Negotiatons on these issues continued after the Chair announced a break for reception by the next host country Korea.

Mobilisation of resources to help biodiversity rich countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America has been the most contentious issue at the conference, with pressure on wealthy nations building up from the group of 77.

The wealthier countries are baulking at commitments, demanding stronger regulatory frameworks for monitoring and evaluation to be created first. Given the state of the global economic downturn, it was heartening that the governments were moving forward.