Greenpeace at the World Nature Conference: Progress is overshadowed by a lack of funding

Greenpeace sees the lack of a decision on funding at COP16 as a bitter blow to international species protection. While some progress was made in marine conservation and an indigenous rights panel was established, the central issue of funding remained unresolved. “The negotiators are probably not aware of the seriousness of the situation. Without sufficient financial resources, nature conservation is toothless,” says Ursula Bittner, species protection expert at Greenpeace. “The funding gap must be closed urgently.”

Greenpeace welcomes the recognition of African American communities under the Convention and the newly established Panel on Indigenous Rights. The question of the use of digital sequence information (DSI) was resolved despite unprecedented lobbying attempts by the pharmaceutical and agricultural lobbies. This is how the so-called Cali Fund was founded, into which companies that want to use DSI have to pay.

“However, this progress is unfortunately overshadowed by inadequate funding. It is unacceptable for rich countries to break their $20 billion pledge. It must be clear to the international community: without intact ecosystems there is no life on this planet,” says Bittner.