The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - signed by 193 countries – has 3 main objectives:

1. The conservation of biological diversity
2. The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity
3. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources

At the 10^th Conference of the Parties, held in October 2010, in Nagoya, Japan, a revised and updated Strategic Plan for Biodiversity was adopted, including the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, for the 2011-2020 period.

The 11^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) will be held in Hyderabad, India, from 8 to 19 October 2012. The agenda will be dense with a key item being how government parties will respond to the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets mentioned above and adapt their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans to support implementation of these new targets. Governments will therefore be focused on public policy reform at the regional, national and sub-national levels, and there is an opportunity for WBCSD to illustrate effective public policy case studies and provide advice on priorities.

The CBD has increasingly considered business as an important stakeholder and has put together a note on its engagement with business for COP11. It has also put together an agenda of business events at the COP.

WBCSD aims to provide the progressive business voice at CBD COP11, profiling business with government parties. Over 10 member companies will be represented, including from the WBCSD Future Leaders Team as well as Regional Network partners.

Our program will focus around:

• Business solutions– innovative, effective, at scale, mainstream
• Public policy options and priorities – that leverage market forces, business solutions and level the playing field

We will build on past activities and positioning, for example at COP10 in 2010 and the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2012. We will leverage in particular:

• Two sets of WBCSD company case studies that show how companies are positively responding to the overall CBD core objectives (2010),and the new Aichi Biodiversity Targets (2012).
• WBCSD effective public policy recommendations (2010)
• Picking up the Pace – Accelerating public policies for positive outcomes – A new report on effective public policy around biodiversity and ecosystems providing constructive and practical input from business to support government efforts to deliver on the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

We have been liaising with the UN CBD Secretariat in the run up to COP11, including around involving business in CBD dialogue platforms.

We will be involved in a number of side events at COP11, and among others:

• Business and Ecosystem Services: Risks, Opportunities and Solutions – co-organized with TERI-BCSD (16 Oct, 18:15-19:45)
• Changing Pace on Public Policy for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Focusing on Innovative and Effective Policy Solutions –  co-organized with OECD  (17 Oct,13:15-14:45)
• Public Policy Encouraging Effective Quarry Rehabilitation – co-organized by the CSI and IUCN (19 Oct, 13:15-14:45)

WBCSD’s Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) will have an expo booth at the Interactive Fair for Biodiversity (booth#44).

The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) member companies undertook significant work to improve biodiversity and amenity value through quarry rehabilitation. The Guidelines on Quarry Rehabilitation share a clear set of recommendations for the development and implementation of a quarry rehabilitation plan, featuring 30 operational case studies of different quarry types and localities.

The CSI will present these Guidelines with a joint information paper with the IUCN at COP11, aiming to show policy makers what constitute a quality biodiversity management plan and to encourage the scaling up of these voluntary good practices in a smarter way.

Collaboration with stakeholder also plays an important role in accelerating the pace of these actions. The industry is engaging active partnership with partner in conservation sector, to educate and inform key stakeholders about rehabilitation and biodiversity developments.

During the COP, the WBCSD will announce its collaboration with the United Kingdom Government on the development of a “BET India” capacity building program, which aims to equip companies in India with the skills they need to better manage their ecosystems impacts and dependencies. “BET India” will comprise:

• Development of an India-specific Business and Ecosystems Training(BET) program covering Indian public policies and case studies from companies based in India. This will be available online for free with trainer notes and materials;
• A 3-day “train-the-trainer” session in Delhi (end Nov 2012), to prepare selected trainers to deliver BET sessions with companies based in India, December onwards.

The program is closely linked to the new Leaders for Nature India initiative, which will also be launched during the COP.

For more information on the “BET India” project, contact Caroline Twigg in Delhi (twigg@wbcsd.org) and Violaine Berger in Geneva (berger@wbcsd.org)

One important complement of WBCSD’s activities at CBD COP11 is the engagement with the OECD with the organization of an OECD Roundtable on Sustainable Development on policy priorities for engaging business to improve the health of ecosystems and conserve biodiversity (16 Oct, 10:30-14:30).  

This “by invitation only” Roundtable will be a high-level discussion to identify policy priorities with up to 30 participants including Ministers from various countries, Conservation groups (e.g. IUCN), WBCSD member companies CEO/public policy/biodiversity experts as well as WBCSD President Peter Bakker.

On 16 Oct, WBCSD launched a new report entitled “Picking up the pace – accelerating public policies for positive outcomes”. The report, which was developed through a review of eight case studies on effective biodiversity and ecosystem policy implementation will be presented during the OECD-WBCSD side event on 17 Oct and distributed to all OECD Roundtable participants, as well as all CBD government parties.

Picking up the Pace aims to:

• Provide constructive and practical input from business to support government efforts to deliver on the Aichi targets;
   
• Positively influence the design and implementation of biodiversity and ecosystem policy to improve both its efficiency and effectiveness in delivering environmental outcomes;
   
• Improve policy-makers’ awareness of the positive and negative business experiences of biodiversity and ecosystem policy and highlight lessons that can be learned from experiences to date;
   
• Present a policy process framework that demonstrates how government and policy-makers can positively engage business in the policy-making process.

For more information on WBCSD’s activities at CBD COP11, please contact James Griffiths, griffiths@wbcsd.org, tel: +41 22839 3114.

For more information on work of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), please contact Philippe Fonta, fonta@wbcsd.org, tel: +41 22839 3104.