Joint Statement from the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management for CBD CoP15
Made by CITES Secretary-General and CPW Chair, Ivonne Higuero
Plenary: CBD/COP/15/L.5 on Sustainable Wildlife Management, 10 December
Thank you Chair,
Distinguished delegates,
I have the honour to address this plenary on behalf of the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management or CPW in my capacity as its Chair. We express our deep appreciation to the Chair of Working Group II for submitting the Draft decision to the plenary. [CBD/COP/15/L.5 https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/92cc/a44c/ba6aa5c2f5768522cc98a7ca/cop-15-l-05-en.pdf]
The adoption of this Decision recognizes that sustainable use of biodiversity, including management of wildlife, contributes to progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and is relevant for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. This Decision is important to keep the momentum and continue the important work on sustainable wildlife management that can significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation.
We believe that the CPW’s collaboration among its partners over the past years has laid a fertile foundation to continue the work mandated in Decision 14/7, and furthermore to support the implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. In particular, we are glad that the outcomes of the CPW’s Consultative Workshop on Sustainable Wildlife Management Beyond 2020 helped inform the discussions in the development of the targets to reduce threats to biodiversity as well as the targets on meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing. We anticipate that this work will continue to be useful in informing the ongoing discussions around the indicators for these targets.
We also wish to inform the Parties about the CPW Progress Report CBD/COP/15/INF/25, which provides a synopsis of CPW’s work over the past four years, in response to the request called for in Decision 14/7.
Finally, we are preparing to meet the new sustainable wildlife management challenges that lie ahead, with the adoption of a new set of CPW thematic objectives. Together, we bring rich expertise and technical knowledge that will directly contribute to the implementation of both the Decision on sustainable wildlife management and also the ambitious targets of the global biodiversity framework.
To conclude, we stress our willingness to continue discussions on relevant wildlife-related topics and we are here at COP15 to provide support for the finalization of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
We wish all delegates very successful negotiations!
Thank you
Chair