GEF CEO and Chairperson Naoko Ishii addresses High Level Segment of the 11th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity, meeting in Hyderabad, India. (Credit-Global Environment Facility)

The 11^th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was conducted from October 8-19 in Hyderabad, India. One of the biggest announcements of the meeting was a pledge by developed nations to double their financing of biodiversity conservation work in developing nations by 2015. These funds will help developing nations to achieve the conservation goals for 2011-2020 set at last year’s CBD meeting. The agreement comes with strings attached that will make the process more transparent and allow the money to be tracked to ensure that it goes to appropriate programs.  There were also discussions about how to shift some of the burden of biodiversity conservation funding from governments to the private sector through the incorporation of ecosystem services values into business activities.

Other resolutions were taken up including advising governments to take a precautionary approach to new fields like synthetic biology and geo-engineering.

Sources:  Forbes (October 22, 2012), SciDev.net (October 22, 2012)