The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
The Convention on Biological Diversity (abbreviated as CBD and hereinafter referred to as the Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect the biological resources on earth.
The Convention was signed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 5, 1992, and entered into force on December 29, 1993. It currently has 196 contracting parties.
China signed the Convention on June 11, 1992, and was one of the first countries to sign and ratify it. The Convention has three main objectives: the conservation of biological diversity; the sustainable use of the components of biological diversity; and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
The supplementary agreements to the Convention include the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the additional protocol on biosafety, and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.
Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 15)
The fifteenth meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-15), originally set for October 2020, was rescheduled to be held in 2021, in Kunming, China due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Crucial to the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the COP-15 is also an extremely important event that will set the course for global biodiversity conservation for the next decade and beyond, with an aim of realizing the 2050 Vision of “Living in harmony with nature”.
The meeting has a distinct theme "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth", and will involve an estimated number of 15,000 participants from 196 contracting parties, UN agencies and international organizations.
