Conference to mainstream conservation of biodiversity into agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism
The UN Biodiversity Conference in Cancún, Mexico, will kick off with a two-day high-level segment on 2 December. Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks will represent Germany at this meeting. The technical negotiations of the Conference of the Parties itself will go on until 17 December.
The topic of the high-level segment will be mainstreaming biodiversity into other policy areas, most importantly agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism. For this reason, several ministers competent for these areas will join the environment ministers at the invitation of host Mexico for the first time.
The high-level segment is expected to adopt the Cancún declaration. The declaration is intended as support for environment ministries all over the world to facilitate the difficult everyday task of mainstreaming. Another topic of the Conference of the Parties is reviewing the progress made with implementing the biodiversity targets for 2020 adopted in Nagoya in 2010 (Strategic Plan).
The Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) takes place every two years. It is the highest political decision-making body of the Convention.