UNICAL Prof in Montreal for Biodiversity talks at COP 15

One of the most important events for life on Earth, ever, is about to begin. This week and next, delegates from more than 190 countries will come together in Montreal, Canada, for a conference known as COP15, or the UN Biodiversity Conference, to hash out a plan to halt the decline of ecosystems, wildlife, and the life-supporting services they provide. Professor Aniebiet Inyang Ntui from the University of Calabar is participating in the crucial summit as a Member of the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Women Caucus. This was made know to the public during the one of the Working Group Meetings ahead of the Conference of Parties which is due to begin on the 7th of December and conclude on the 19th.

The CBD Women’s Caucus is a organized network with around 300-500 organizations from all over the world which continuously provides input into the global policy processes of the CBD and other biodiversity related international negotiations. The group has the objective to bring to attention women’s human rights and working towards strengthening the gender-responsive actions to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in the policy framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), including strengthening the voices of women that are grounded in the local and national realities through advocacy, policy and capacity building.

If the term “COP” sounds familiar, that’s because there was another UN conference last month called COP27. But these two events are very different. COP27 was about climate change — a conference of countries “party” to the UN’s major climate pact. COP15 will bring together nations party to another major treaty called the Convention on Biological Diversity.

“Our planet is in crisis,” Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said in a press conference earlier this month. More than a million species are threatened with extinction, she said, and populations of most major animal groups have declined by an average of 69 percent. “Clearly, the world is crying out for change,” she said.

During COP15, which starts on Wednesday, the 2022 UK Global Prize Winner will join other negotiators to finalize and sign a document called the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the equivalent for the Paris Climate Agreement  but for biodiversity — a strategy with nearly two dozen measurable targets designed to conserve ecosystems and the benefits they provide, such as food and plant-derived medicines.

Professor Aniebiet Inyang Ntui is the Most Read Researcher in Nigeria, a Nobel Prize Nominee and the University Librarian of the University of Calabar. She lead deliberations during the Edu-Tech segments of the 27th Conference of Parties (COP) on Climate Change in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt and the Climate Change Discussions at the G20 Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.