Press Conference: Common Ground at COP17, UN Convention on Biodiversity

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. My name is Gopal Patel. I am one of the co-conveners of Faiths for Biodiversity. We are the faith constituency here under the UN CBD, and we have a little faith hub just there in the action zone. We'll be hosting events all day and all week. I'm also the co-founder of an international multi-faith organization called Future Faith. We are here today because at COP16 we have launched a new report called Common Ground, Faith Partnerships for Nature. And you can see it on the screen and you can download it via the QR code. There's a simple idea behind this report. Nature recovers through relationship. The global biodiversity framework was agreed by governments, but it comes into reality in communities at the local level. No landscape is shaped by one institution alone. Public authorities hold legal powers. Indigenous peoples and local communities hold rights and knowledge. Scientists track change. Business and investors shape land use, purchasing, and capital. And faith groups. Faith groups and institutions hold land, schools, hospitals, investments, and relationships that last generations. So the question that this report asks and seeks to answer is how can partnerships strengthen the implementation of the global biodiversity framework? To answer that, we looked at seven partnerships across the world. We go to Cambodia, South Africa, the United States, Ghana, and international partnerships. We looked at them through the lens of different groups, indigenous peoples and local communities, women and girls, youth, science, business, multilateral cooperation, and philanthropy. And today we'll be hearing from representatives from a number of those constituency groups after my remarks. When we go through these case studies, we were careful to separate three things, what each partnership did, What changed in the institutions and decisions? And what can we honestly say about the ecological recovery that happened? Where there were gaps or where the work stalled, we were honest about saying so. Three lessons emerged from across these seven case studies. The first is that partnership works best when each partner can change something the others cannot. We all can bring something unique. The second is that knowledge only matters when it reaches decision makers. And the third is that recovery, ecological recovery, often outlasts project cycles. Let me give one example of what's possible from the work of our organization, Future Faith. Ocean acidification has now become the seventh of nine planetary boundaries to be crossed. With the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Oceans Five, and so this is the philanthropy case study in the report, a new initiative was launched last year called Faiths for Oceans. It was launched at UNOC3, the third UN Ocean Conference in Nice. There, faith leaders gathered. They issued the first ever global report looking at what faith communities are doing on ocean protection and governance. faith leaders signed the largest ever faith declaration on ocean conservation, and they launched a number of resources and a global network of bringing faith voices into global ocean governance conversations. One year later, so just this past June, in Mombasa, Kenya, on the sidelines of the Our Ocean Conference, Faith2Oceans hosted the Ocean Interfaith Forum, where they launched the Faiths High Ambition Coalition for Ocean and Nature Action. And this new entity, the Faiths HAC, High Ambition Coalition, aims to take faith commitments and goodwill into tangible, accountable commitments. So we move from faith saying, we believe in things, we want to do things, we affirm things, to actually saying, this is what we are doing, and this is how you can see and track and trace what we are doing. And that high ambition coalition on ocean and nature action has nine founding members, and we're looking to increase that by about another 20 to 30 organizations by the time the BBNJ COP1 takes place in New York in January. So that's just one example of faith and philanthropy working together on this particular issue of ocean, but the case studies delve into a whole number of other case studies as well. The report closes with two practical offers. The first is how can what we say secular or non-faith organisations work most effectively with faith-based organisations? As I've said, faith holds immense power, institutional reach, relationships, but oftentimes those outside of the faith space don't know, are risk averse or struggle to understand what is the entry point and best practice of working with faith communities. So the report outlines six principles for effective faith partnerships. The second thing the report offers is an invitation into a conversation around how can we increase cross-constituency collaboration across the full CBD COP cycle. The CBD COP happens every two years, as we know, and I think for many groups, the year it happens, we get activated and engaged, and the year it doesn't happen, activity slows down. So what we would like to offer is how do we create a full COP cycle? So on the off year and on the on year, the constituencies are not just active by themselves, but actively working with business, with youth, with the gender caucus, and so on. So therefore creating a full COP cycle. And we have some suggestions for how to do that in the report. Before I hand it over to the other speakers today, I'd just like to say that nature does not recover through declarations. I think we're all here because we believe in the process, but at the same time recognize there's another process that's taking place, the process of local communities. Nature recovers through relationships that last. That is the common ground that we are hoping to build, and I'm grateful to offer those remarks today. And I'd like to hand over to the various panelists to share their reflections, both on the report on their work and on the importance of partnerships for the GBF. First, I'd like to hand over to Ernst from Danmission, who have been a wonderful supporter of Face for Biodiversity for a number of years and provided the support for this particular report. Ernst, over to you.

I would like to speak on a partnership from Cambodia. So In Cambodia, Danmission, which is a Danish NGO linked to the Lutheran Church in Denmark, started a partnership across a number of sectors. We started out by working with a local community, a grassroot movement in a specific forest in Cambodia called Prey Long. The purpose of working with them was to protect one of Cambodia's biggest forests, named the Prey Long. which is very rich in biodiversity and is one of the biodiversity hotspots in Southeast Asia. When we engaged with them, we also thought that in order really to support them in protecting the forest, it was important not only to work with this one small partner, but also to engage other sectors. So therefore, we reached out to the University of Copenhagen from Denmark. local NGOs in Cambodia, a peace-building organization, but also a youth organization connected to the global youth biodiversity network named Cambodia Youth Network, but also an IT company. We decided together with the local communities to develop an app that could be used by the communities to collect data on biodiversity. And over the years, the communities have collected a substantial amount of data on biodiversity. And we are now in the process of exploring how all this data can feed into in the sub and GPF processes. What started out in one forest in Cambodia, in this in the Polong forest, later expanded also to other forests in Cambodia, including a forest called the Monk Community Forest. So we also started engaging with Buddhist monks in Cambodia and also with other indigenous groups in another forest in Cambodia. So it started out as a relatively small project, but has really expanded over the years. This partnership that we established back in 2014 is still ongoing today. It's a formalized partnership. We have just initiated a new project called Biodiversity for All, and the same partners that were part of the project back in 2014 are still part of this project. Let me just see the time. This partnership that we developed in Cambodia, we really see as a model for what also can be done in other countries. So the app that Danmission supported local communities in Cambodia to develop has now also expanded to other countries. And also here we are exploring whether this model of partnership across different sectors also could be useful. For instance, I will now in the process of making use of a mangrove monitoring app in Tanzania. And here we have established a partnership between local mangrove communities, local NGOs, the University of Zanzibar in Tanzania, but also other actors. So this model that was originally created in Cambodia is also now expanding to East Africa and also I'm looking now at my colleague from the Middle East. Also here we have established a collaboration between local communities, universities, and NGOs. And I see this model as really powerful in terms of bringing a lot of different actors together for a shared goal on biodiversity conservation. The data that is being collected by these communities can obviously feed into both national and global policy processes. And there's a lot of potential which has not yet really fully been explored and that we're really also using this COP as one of the opportunities to do so. Yesterday, the Cambodian delegation met with the Cambodian Ministry of Environment really also to explore opportunities for collaboration in terms of using all the data collected on biodiversity in the national policy processes. I think I need to stop here.

Thank you very much, Ernst. Now I'd like to pass the floor to Flor Getty, who's representing the Global Youth Biodiversity Network.

Hello, everyone. Thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here. So I'm indeed with the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, who is a very vibrant and amazing network of young people coordinating here at the CBD. I'm also a Buddhist youth and faith leader in my community. So the report spoke to me a lot. and I think that this report is a really blatant example of when you either let youth take the lead or you partner with youth, then wonderful thing happens and everything changes, basically. I'm going to be brief, but I wanted to talk about what is it that we talk about when we talk about youth partnerships and maybe the barriers that exist to youth youth partnership when we talk about it. Because when we talk about youth partnership, we talk about access. And so whether it's access to information, whether it's access to funding, whether it's access to participation, whether it's access to decision making, all those access are really difficult to reach for a lot of youth, although they already are implementers, they already are knowledge holders. They already are on. on the front lines, conserving biodiversity, fighting on the front line of environmental actions. And we already see in the space that we're in, we're already seeing erasure of that knowledge, erasure of those actions that the youth are doing. I think we saw it yesterday in some items, the disappearance of women and youth all of a sudden and their knowledge. And so when we talk about that, we're talking about justice, actually, and how we can really allow the youth to take their full place on this stage and their full role as youth to lead the change. And so the question that we should be asking ourselves, and I think that the report is showing, is what can we do for youth? What can we do with youth and what space we can give for the youth to lead? So I will leave you with those questions and I will give the floor back to Gopal. Thank you.

Thank you, Floor. I'm going to turn to Salvatrice, who's today representing the CBD Women's Caucus.

Thank you. My name is Salvatrice. I am representing here the CBD Women's Caucus. And I am from Rwanda. I was really excited for this discussion. And I have been wondering, why churches, why your organization, faith-based organization, they are involved in biodiversity? In my country, I was asking some of them, what are you doing with your land? So now I am here with this discussion. It's brief, but I want to come back to the CBD Women's Caucus. We are a platform, a forum for more than 900 women represented from all around the world. We are here. Yesterday, we had a gender day, and it was really amazing to discuss. What do we do? We ask, we request parties, countries, stakeholders to come back to the role of women, their knowledge, their traditional knowledge, Go back when I talk like this, I ask people, how do you forget the role of your mothers? Look, go back, look what your mothers are doing. So I was happy with this report. Thank you for the work you did. The example from Cambodia, from young ladies, young girls in South Africa, from CREMA in Ghana. I was happy that I came to meet the founder of CREMA in Ghana that changed the use of landscape in Ghana, the forest in Ghana, and integrated women. So the report already showed the gaps. national biodiversity strategies and the there is a big gap they don't integrate other than government organization less than 50 percent they showed that they don't report on that this is a big gap in biodiversity in the implementation coming Montreal Global Biodiversity framework but I am coming back through the Rio Convention. We can't take biodiversity alone. We are talking about climate change and climate community resilience. We are talking about how the role of those women are engaged in climate change adaptation, in land restoration, in biodiversity conservation. When we talk about women, we're talking about their role in soil biodiversity, in their role in seed sustainability. Those seeds, we are talking about the seeds. We already know the role of seeds. We are talking about the traditional knowledge, traditional medicine, how traditional medicine, the transmission of those, the cognition of those, the role of women, empowering them, identifying, empowering them, and the future of biodiversity, climate change adaptation. And our position was there is no cooperation without gender justice. integrating a user in partnership with with faith faith-based organization should consider integrating gender plan of action all the three your convention unccc unf CDD in charge of land they have gender plan of action, they have focal point, how those focal point can work together. And then I'm coming back to the partnership. Partnership is about, cooperation is about, with faith organization, they have everything. They have land, they have knowledge, they have connection with the community. This is very important, connection with the community. Faith is there, but there is no faith without sustainable development. They have to align their faith with sustainable development. I think I'm talking too much, but one of the things I can say is that This is very important to ensure that cooperation, who is coming on the board, what problem are we trying to solve, and how can we come together? We are talking about one society approach. One society approach, how those actors, investors, faith-based, come together and solve the real problem on the ground. We are looking into how this, when we are here, we are talking about high level, top down. But we need a bottom up. This is where we are talking about gender, about the role of women, about what they can do. And churches that in connection with a lot of rural women, say agriculture, women involved in the subsistence agriculture, women involved in the small scale fishing. And we talk about target three. And what does it mean on the ground? So my last message is, let me sum up. Caring for creation begins with honoring those who sustain it. When faith and sustainable development work together and women and girls lead, resources and knowledge of the generation partnership becomes recovery for people and the planet at COP and beyond. Let's hold our hands together, bringing faith, partnership and resources. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I think that deserves a round of applause. Thank you, Salvatrice, for being with us. I'd like to finally turn to Kamran Shahzad from the Bahu Trust.

Thank you, Gopal and previous speakers. I could listen to you for another five, six minutes, I'm sure longer, but thank you for that. The Common Ground report demonstrates really well how faith communities can work really well in partnership to protect biodiversity and deliver practical conservation. And one particular example that I want to talk to you about today is the Islamic help and the WWF Pakistan partnership, which is a powerful example of collaboration between a faith-based organization and a world-leading science-based conservation organization. And by bringing together Islamic help's faith networks, community relationships, and values-driven approach, and also WWF's Pakistan's scientific expertise and conservation leadership, We are aiming to turn this shared ambition into practical action. And for us, this is about translating our values into action and creating lasting benefits for nature and for local communities. Islamic Help and WWF Pakistan have signed a three-year partnership agreement. Together, we're developing the Al-Mizan Forest. It's inspired by the chronic principle of Al-Mizan, meaning the balance. And the program forms part of the Global Trillion Trees Initiative, which we learned about here through Faith for Biodiversity. And our target in contributing to that figure is to plant more than 2.7 million trees across approximately 1,700 hectares in Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan. And the ambition of this project is to go beyond tree planting or tree growing. We also want to restore ecosystems. We want to protect biodiversity. We want to support sustainable livelihoods and ultimately strengthen community resilience. And the program, as I mentioned earlier, is inspired by Al-Mizan, a covenant for the earth, an Islamic environmental declaration which is supported by UNEP and launched at UNEA in 2024. And it draws upon the Islamic principles of justice, of stewardship, and responsibility towards the natural world. And these principles for us provide a strong foundation for engaging Muslim communities in environmental action. And the partnership brings together complementary sets of strengths. WWF Pakistan provides the scientific expertise, the conservation planning, and the on-the-ground implementation. And while Islamic help, they bring the faith-based network, the community relationships, the fundraising capacity, and the ability to mobilize supporters and volunteers and communities. And that's what makes this partnership very valuable. Like on one hand, the science informs the effective conservation, while the faith communities help build this public engagement and shared responsibility and a long-term commitment. And moving beyond just the planting, what the Al Misan Forest will do, it demonstrates this holistic values-informed approach to conservation. The program will incorporate several physical features. We will incorporate the Himma and Hareem principles which draw on traditional Islamic approaches to conservation and responsible use of natural resources. It will implement agroforestry, integrating trees with agriculture to support biodiversity and community livelihoods, wildlife corridors, water conservation, education, very important part, youth participation and community engagement, including imams and faith leaders, And the local communities will be very active partners in this. And they will be bringing their knowledge and their experience into decisions about the landscapes that they depend on. So as the Global Biodiversity Framework enters its second-half, partnerships like this, they offer a practical way to accelerate that delivery. And through, we believe, through the Almazan Forest, We're bringing together the Islamic environmental principles and the scientific conservation and community participation. I mean, our ambition is to deliver lasting benefits for Pakistan's biodiversity and for its communities, whilst also developing an approach that can inspire similar faith-based conservation partnerships around the world. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Cameron. I think we have about five minutes, so we're happy to take some questions from the floor for any of our panelists. I think we've said it all then. So thank you very much again to our speakers today, Ernst, Salvatrice, Cameron and Floor. Thank you for highlighting the case studies, highlighting the work you're doing, but also putting forward very strong calls to action and challenges for all of us to think about for the rest of the conference. And thank you for being with us today. Thank you.