Professor represents U. at UN biodiversity conference in Colombia

Pamela McElwee, professor in the Department of Human Ecology, recently attended the United Nations' 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia as a University representative, according to Rutgers Global Website.

The University became a CBD observer organization in 2022. McElwee said Rutgers is part of a group whose primary role is to witness proceedings and assist countries with the information they need to negotiate.

The COP16 clarified the details of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework that countries agreed upon during the last conference. The framework delineates 23 short-term goals that support four overarching goals for the future. The COP16 aimed to add specific instructions for reaching the goals, but the group was unable to reach a consensus.

"If we are going to monitor biodiversity change, what exactly are the indicators we need to monitor? If we need to raise more funding for biodiversity, who should contribute and how should that money be distributed?" McElwee said.

McElwee is co-chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) nexus assessment, which studies the connections between biodiversity, water, food and health within the context of climate change. In this role, she gives advice to countries that are signatories to the CBD which can then become policy.

McElwee also participated in a panel with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research which works to further research about food and improve food systems. On this panel, she discussed how the IPBES assessment might be able to aid them in bridging industry gaps to further their goals.

McElwee said that those who attended the conference were examining biodiversity through an interdisciplinary lens instead of as an isolated challenge. She said that it was reassuring to see these links being made.

"Money to finance a climate transition to low carbon energy could also go to biodiversity-supportive measures, or policies to conserve biodiversity can also help us avoid the next zoonotic pandemic, as we learned from COVID-19," McElwee said.

Despite the progress of COP16, McElwee said that the meeting came to an abrupt ending and did not fully address funding for biodiversity conservation, which reflects the disagreement between developed and other countries about who should shoulder the financial cost for this.

The parties did agree that private companies who benefit from digitally sequenced information such as DNA will dedicate 1 percent of their profits toward financing biodiversity in the developing world.

McElwee said that although Rutgers has been proactive on climate change, more work needs to be done in the biodiversity sector.

"If students are interested in doing something about the global biodiversity crisis, we could start by joining that network and looking at our own backyard," she said.