Latin America Moves Centerstage in Drive for Accountability on Biodiversity

Latin America will be at the forefront of major global discussions on biodiversity this year. For the first time, my home country of Colombia will host the UN Conference of the Parties on Biodiversity (COP16), which starts on 21 October in the city of Cali.

COP16: local solutions for a global crisis

The COP is the governing body of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), an international treaty launched here in Latin America at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. With the aim of driving global commitments to protect nature and ensure the sustainable use of our planet’s resources, this sixteenth edition has the theme, ‘Peace with Nature’.

COP16 will gather diverse actors, such as governments, civil society, businesses, financial institutions and academia, to catalyze collective action to transform our relationship with the natural world. Following the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15, this next international conference is a key moment to assess if this roadmap for action is having an effect in halting and reversing biodiversity loss.

A multi-dimensional problem

According to WWF, between 1970 and 2018 the world saw a 69% decline in species populations, largely due to deforestation, agricultural practices, overuse of natural resources, climate change, and pollution. The UN has reported, meanwhile, that one million species are threatened with extinction.

Biodiversity is also closely linked to economic activities and the role of businesses. The World Economic Forum’s New Nature Economy Report II found that over half of total global GDP is at risk as a result of biodiversity loss. Thus, reversing these alarming trends is crucial across multiple dimensions, including environmental, economic and human aspects.

The most biodiverse yet unequal region in the world

Latin America is home to 50% of the world’s biodiversity, including key ecosystems such as the Amazon, the most biodiverse tropical rainforest in the world; the Andes, the longest mountain chain on Earth; and the Caribbean, one of the regions with most marine biodiversity. At the same time, it is the region that shows the greatest declines in wildlife population abundance.

Latin America is also the most unequal region in the world, which magnifies the economic consequences of nature loss, with indigenous communities particularly vulnerable. One in five jobs are closely connected to biodiversity, according to analysis by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.Therefore, a just transition must not only protect nature but also ensure that the most vulnerable populations are supported, bridging the gap between sustainability and social equity.

In this context, sustainable business models that consider the impacts on nature can make a huge difference to the region’s prospects, environmentally, socially and economically. This is why a transition to a nature-positive economy is especially critical for Latin America, and why hosting COP16 in Colombia is a key opportunity to put nature at the heart of the global environmental agenda.

The role of impact reporting

Understanding and addressing the impacts of companies on nature is essential to foster conservation and halt biodiversity loss. That’s why GRI’s presence at COP16 will be centered on how to drive business accountability for their impacts on nature.

At GRI, we are shaping the global debate on the importance of biodiversity in the sustainable development agenda. At the beginning of the year, a major revision to the GRI Biodiversity Standard — GRI 101 — was published, to represent internationally agreed best practice in corporate transparency and biodiversity. At COP16 we will be focusing on our efforts to sustain momentum for biodiversity reporting, built on GRI 101:

• Our pilot for the use of GRI 101 with early adopters within GRI Community members.We will share experiences from this program, which has been implemented at global and regional levels. In the GRI Latin America Network, we have been working with companies that span energy, services and civil society sectors, identifying opportunities and challenges on the use of GRI 101 to support their biodiversity disclosure efforts.
• To support reporters in their use of our Biodiversity Standard, the GRI Academy, the world’s leading education portal for sustainability reporting professionals, has launched Charting a greener path: reporting on biodiversity with GRI Standards. The online training provides the know-how on best applying GRI 101, and deep dives into biodiversity as a wider topic.
• In line with GRI’s commitment to make the Standards accessible to a diverse global audience, during COP16 we will introduce the Spanish and Portuguese translations of GRI 101. The Standard is also available in Arabic, French, German, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
• As part of our collaboration efforts to foster seamless reporting experiences, together with Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) a joint interoperability mapping resource has been published to help GRI’s 14,000 reporters globally align with the TNFD recommendations and assist TNFD adopters in their reporting according to GRI Standards.
• To bring business accountability on biodiversity impacts into the spotlight, during COP16 senior GRI representatives will be speaking at national, regional and international events and workshops. They will also engage with a wide range of stakeholders including policymakers, businesses, and government representatives.

Collective action and a shared responsibility

Protecting our natural heritage can only be done through a collective effort — including governments, the private sector, civil society, local communities, financial institutions and others. This multi-stakeholder ethos, as envisaged by GRI, needs to be a prerequisite for COP16 to stand any chance of succeeding in its aims.

If this shared responsibility can be realized, I believe COP16 can be the turning point for Latin America and beyond. It can deliver a lasting legacy that goes beyond supportive words from the global community about preserving biodiversity, and moves to the action needed to secure a sustainable future for the benefit of present and future generations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrea Pradilla leads GRI’s regional network for Latin America, based in Bogota, with responsibility for promoting sustainability reporting throughout the region by engaging with companies, capital markets and other stakeholders. Prior to joining GRI in 2014, Andrea headed the Colombian National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism.

Earlier in her career, Andrea worked in international development for organizations in Washington DC. She has a MSc in Foreign Service from Georgetown University (USA) and a Degree in Law from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia). She serves on the boards of various non-profits and is an Adjunct Professor of Corporate Sustainability, CESA Business School (Colombia).