JOIN ON LINE: The new Global Biodiversity Framework: the good, the bad and the narratives. Sandra Diaz

In December 2022, the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity enshrined the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). This policy instrument will structure all the global intergovernmental action on biodiversity during the next ten years. It is thus bound to have massive influence on what will be done (or not) in this field. I will discuss how the GBF has incorporated the scientific evidence, whether it means a step forward with respect to its predecessor (the Aichi Targets), and some constraints and opportunities posed by it. I will also discuss how different social narratives about nature and people came into play during the construction of the GBF.

Sandra Díaz is Professor of Ecology at Córdoba National University, senior member of the National Research Council of Argentina and Visiting Professor at the School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University. She is interested in plant functional traits and syndromes, their effects on ecosystem properties and their interactions with global change drivers. She constructed the first global quantitative picture of essential functional diversity of vascular plants –the global spectrum of plant form and function. She has advanced theory and practical implementation of the concept of functional diversity and its effects on ecosystem properties and benefits. She combines her ecology studies with interdisciplinary work on how different societies value and reconfigure nature. She founded Núcleo DiverSus on Diversity and Sustainability, and co-founded the Global Communal Plant Trait Initiative TRY. She co-chaired the Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and coordinated scientific contributions to the CBD Global Biodiversity Framework. She is a member of the Academies of Sciences of Argentina, USA, France, Norway, Latin America and the Developing World, and Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society and member of the American Philosophical Society. Her awards include the Margalef Prize in Ecology (2017), the Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science (2019), the Kew International Medal (2020) and the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge in Ecology and Conservation Award (2021).