Highlights for Wednesday, 13 November 2019

View of the session on Advancing Ocean Action Towards SDG 14

On 13 November 2019, during the 2020 Ocean Pathways Week, participants convened for a joint session coordinated by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and supported by the Ministry of Environment and Energy of the Government of Sweden and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of the Republic of Korea. The session bridged two interrelated meetings: “Advancing Ocean Action Towards SDG 14: Leveraging Synergies for Marine and Coastal Ecosystems, Mangroves and Coral Reefs” (11-13 November 2019); and a thematic workshop on marine and coastal biodiversity for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The purpose of the workshop is to deliver concrete proposals to be considered in the post-2020 framework. The thematic workshop continued on 14-15 November.

In the first half of the day, participants heard a report on the previous days’ work on Advancing Ocean Action Towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14. They discussed key opportunities and overlaps between the SDG 14 process and the process under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to develop the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, with breakout groups discussing sustainable fisheries; the overarching impact of climate change and other drivers of global biodiversity loss; and potential gaps within SDG 14 targets that may be addressed in the post-2020 framework. Participants also discussed using the SDGs to inform indicators, monitoring, and assessment of post-2020 targets, with breakout groups highlighting the need to: work across conventions; strengthen indicators; and work towards quantitative as well as qualitative measurement.
In the second half of the day, which marked the beginning of the post-2020 thematic workshop, participants heard from Elizabeth Mrema, Officer-in-Charge, CBD secretariat. Mrema welcomed participants to the workshop and charged them with the task of creating the “gills and fins” of the post-2020 framework. They also heard from Ambassador Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, who reminded them that “everything being done for biodiversity must be integrated with ocean and climate tracks”, and that not “acting as one” would be “a dereliction of duty”. Participants heard a series of presentations on the status and trends of different areas of ocean action, including 

• the state of the ocean;
• fisheries;
• Aichi Biodiversity Target 11(area-based conservation);
• Mangroves and wetlands;
• coral reefs; and
• migratory species. 

Following a presentation on lessons learned from implementing the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, participants broke into groups to discuss how these lessons could inform the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. They highlighted, among others, the importance of synergies between top-down global targets and bottom-up regional achievements.

The 2020 Ocean Pathways Week is taking place from 11-15 November 2019 in Montreal, Canada.

L-R: Co-Chairs Ilham Atho Mohamed, Maldives and Adam van Opzeeland, New Zealand, with Joe Appiott, CBD Secretariat

Joe Appiott, CBD Secretariat, presented key points from previous discussions

Joe Appiott, CBD Secretariat

Co-Chair Ilham Atho Mohamed, Maldives

Roundtable Discussions

Thematic Workshop on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

L-R: Co-Chair Ilham Atho Mohamed, Maldives; Co-Chair Adam van Opzeeland, New Zealand; Basile van Havre, Co-Chair for the Open-Ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, Canada; Peter Thomson, UNSG's Special Envoy for the Ocean; and Elizabeth Mrema, Officer-in-Charge, CBD Secretariat

Elizabeth Mrema, Officer-in-Charge, CBD Secretariat

Peter Thomson, UNSG's Special Envoy for the Oceans

Basile van Havre, Co-Chair for the OEWG on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, Canada

Co-Chair Adam van Opzeeland, New Zealand

Lisa Janishevski, CBD Secretariat

Simon Harding, University of the South Pacific, Fiji

Kim Friedman, UN Food and Agriculture Organization

María Rivera, RAMSAR Convention

Emily Corcoran, International Coral Reef Initiative

Sarat Gidda, CBD Secretariat

Carolina Hazin, BirdLife International

Breakout Group Discussions

Participants from the 2020 Ocean Pathways Week