Mainstreaming Champions Group launches at UN Biodiversity Conference CBD-COP16

As UN Biodiversity Conference CBD-COP16 nears its conclusion, a group of national governments today announced the establishment of a Champions Group of Parties to drive progress on the mission-critical area of mainstreaming – the embedding of the targets, goals, and principles of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) across all sectors of the global economy. As part of the announcement, founding governments also invite other Parties to join. 

Conversations during the technical UN working group meetings that immediately preceded CBD-COP16 highlighted a clear desire to accelerate progress on this agenda – a crucial pillar of the shared vision to create a nature-positive global economy that slows and ultimately begins to reverse precipitous rates of biodiversity loss by the end of this decade.

Led by the governments of CBD-COP16 host Colombia alongside Mexico, other formative members of the Mainstreaming Champions Group include Belgium, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Mauritania, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and tentatively Zambia. Other countries are expected to join soon.  Global environmental NGOs The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) are supporting the group’s coordination.

“The establishment of a Champions Group for Biodiversity Mainstreaming, in partnership with Mexico, is of critical importance, as it provides a comprehensive forum to advance approaches to mainstreaming biodiversity across all productive sectors. This initiative underscores the significance of mainstreaming in promoting and furthering biodiversity integration, ensuring that all countries can engage in inclusive, adaptive, and constructive dialogue aimed at achieving sustainable, long-term biodiversity objectives," said Colombia at the first meeting of the Group. 

“Mexico is proud to co-lead with our dear friends from Colombia the launch of the Mainstreaming Champions Group, reinforcing our commitment to embedding biodiversity across all economic sectors. Since 2016, we have worked tirelessly to ensure that biodiversity conservation and sustainable use are integrated into sectoral policies and strategies, including agriculture, tourism, forestry, fisheries, and, more recently, the financial sector. Through these actions, Mexico has aimed to foster an economy that safeguards biodiversity, helping to halt and reverse its loss while promoting inclusive sustainable development. With this new Champions Group, we join like-minded countries in a coordinated effort to transform our economy and achieve the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework," said Camila Zepeda, Head of the International Affairs Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

“The Mainstreaming Champions Group will be warmly welcomed by civil society and global NGOs. In fact, 56 organizations from various sectors called for this Group’s establishment in a COP 16 joint Call to Action,” said Linda Krueger, Director of Global Biodiversity and Infrastructure Policy. “We expect this group to drive tangible action, and maintain political focus on an area without which achieving the GBF’s 2030 mission, goals and targets will be impossible.”

“Mobilizing and transforming key sectors, from food and agriculture to finance, is essential to achieving the Global Biodiversity Framework’s mission to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030,” said Dr Lin Li, Senior Director, Global Policy & Advocacy, WWF International. “WWF welcomes the establishment of the Mainstreaming Champions Group of Parties that can drive action to integrate biodiversity into decision making at all levels within and across sectors. Only by putting people and nature at the heart of all we do will we be able to make peace with nature and achieve greater equality, safety and prosperity.”

Immediate priority workstreams for the new Mainstreaming Champions Group will comprise Accelerating collective action and impact; Collaboration and mutual learning; and Engagement designed to maintain momentum through 2030.