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'We have started the COP16 discussion process at a good pace': Environment Minister Susana Muhamad
The official takes stock of the first week of negotiations. She also highlights Cali's positive attitude.
From left to right: Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Astrid Schomaker; Environment Minister Susana Muhamad; and Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Foto: Ministerio de Ambiente
PERIODISTA DE MEDIOAMBIENTE Y SALUDActualizado:
During COP16, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad may attend at least three press conferences a day, attend plenary sessions, talk to negotiators, focus on mining protests, and then head to a summit where she is not only a host government official but also the president of the conference. In the midst of this busy schedule, she took some time to talk to EL TIEMPO and give her assessment of the first week of the meeting.
(Lea esta historia en español, aquí)
The head of the environment portfolio highlights the work done by all civil society around the summit and assures that progress has been made on some key issues, although she its that others could be delayed during the two weeks of discussions.
How does this week end in general, how did you feel about it?
Everything is happening in these negotiations, but I would like to highlight the very positive atmosphere that Cali society, the visitors from Colombia, and the great social mobilization that COP16 has generated in general have created as a political environment for the negotiations. It was a very positive atmosphere; all the international delegates expressed their gratitude for the mobilization and the welcome they received from the Colombian people here in Cali. Second, we started the COP negotiation process at a good pace. We were able to set up the working groups quickly, the negotiations on fundamental issues started practically from the first night, and this is also a good sign that the parties are willing to move forward and that the results will be successful. And third, the political declarations and the number of events and discussions that have taken place both in the Green Zone and here in the Blue Zone on the part of all the actors. I would like to highlight the Declaration of the Parliamentary Forum, with parliamentarians from different parts of the world, the Women's Declaration, the Inírida Declaration, the Indigenous Peoples' Declaration, the Afro-descendant Forum, also to express their position, and I believe that this generates a lot of social appropriation of the COP and the Montreal Framework and citizen participation.
Of the three fundamental issues that are expected to be promoted at this COP, have there been any advances that you are excited about?
There is progress on the implementation framework, important progress on the workplan article on indigenous peoples and local communities. There is also important progress on the issue of genetic sequences of digital databases. Above all, I would like to emphasize that there is a constructive atmosphere of wanting to move the process forward. Now we have a more polarized and more difficult situation in of resource mobilization and financial issues.
One of the key issues that could come out of this is a fund for mega-diverse countries like ours, based on genetic sequences. You say there is a good atmosphere; Colombia's chief negotiator told us that we still do not know who will provide the money for this fund. Have we already agreed on that?
These negotiation processes have several stages, and these stages have to be exhausted. The negotiation can take two whole weeks. But what I want to say is that there is a constructive atmosphere of the parties in the process. There are times when the negotiations are blocked because some parties want to block the negotiations. That has not happened yet, and progress is being made in an important and constructive way. In other words, the parties are putting ideas on the table to resolve the issues that are still under discussion. But we will see how it goes. Everything is moving here.
Speaking of blocking negotiations, we have revealed in EL TIEMPO that the African bloc of countries, with the vote of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is against the proposal of Colombia and Brazil to include Afro-descendants in the discussions at the CBD. Why is this?
There are some concerns. We believe that there is still a lack of understanding of the proposal, but this proposal is already in the text and that is already important. It is still in brackets, so it is not a decision, it is not a consensus, it is not a clean text, but it is in the text and that is good news. Colombia and Brazil have managed to produce a text that allows it to be included, and that means that it is already the subject of negotiations, and that is an important step forward.
Minister, this week you announced Colombia's commitments to biodiversity, including the restoration of 5 million hectares. Some experts say that this is necessary, but a very difficult goal to achieve. Why did you take the risk with this number?
We cannot create the change that is needed based on what we can do, but the other way around, we have to define what is needed and then go back to how we create the capacity to do it. That is the process, that goal was not set by the Ministry of Environment, but it is a process of consultation and work... If you have 23 million hectares that we should put into restoration in the country and we put 5 million hectares, then you are addressing at least a quarter of the problem. When we see today the emergencies caused by climate change, droughts, emergencies caused by excessive rainfall, that is where we need to do this environmental restoration. And if we as a country do not propose it, what are we saying? That we are destined to have more and more disasters, that the water situation is going to get worse and worse. That is not the response of a government and a society. Here we want to say that what we all have to do is to take this small example of the COP that we did as a miracle: in eight months we organized something of a dimension that nobody had planned, but it was because of the mobilization of everybody that we achieved it, the synergy that produced this result.
To restore biodiversity and make progress on these goals, we need to mobilize all of government and all of society. I am sure that there are capacities here that we do not see today, but that if we come together, they will emerge in a very beautiful way, and I believe it will be very powerful. And I believe, as a minister, that it is a commitment of all of us, of the institutions that you represent, of civil society.
And also to see what we do with the armed actors? Because these illegal groups are the ones that affect our biodiversity the most...
That is why the President has always extended his hand for total peace. The President has initiated a process of dialogue, and I believe that with this COP16 there is a message to the actors who are still in arms: there is a process of social justice, environmental justice, social justice of the most abandoned territories, there is a mobilization of society, they could be a constructive part of it. The truth is that today they are an obstacle in this situation of illegal economies and armed struggles, but this can change. Peace with nature can call us to do this, and it is the call, but it must also be said that it is not only the illegal economies, although they have a devastating impact, it is also our extractivist development model that has generated this process. The greatest loss of biodiversity in this country has occurred in agricultural practices and the concentration of agricultural lands; this is the greatest historical loss of biodiversity in the country. And then the whole process of extractivism. So the logic of the development model has to be questioned in a constructive way in order to develop alternatives that will allow us to be stronger in the face of these environmental crises.
Several experts have described this COP as the country's largest environmental education campaign. Is that how you see it?
Yes, I think so. It is in the public discussion, it is in the common sense of the people, it is beginning to be a discussion, it is beginning to be something important. The new generations of this country are impressive in their knowledge and their ability to understand the situation. The private sector is also very involved, the banks, the alternative media, the mass media. Really, yes, it was a great mobilization. Our goal was to make the COP the biggest environmental classroom that Colombia has ever had, and I think we are all achieving that.
EDWIN CAICEDO and ERNESTO CORTÉS
Environment Desk
Editor's note: This text is an artificially intelligent English translation of the original Spanish version, which can be found here. Any comment, please write to [email protected]
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