30 Oxford researchers attending UN biodiversity conference

The United Nations Conference of the Parties for Biodiversity (COP16), taking place in Cali, Colombia, began on October 21 and will run until November 1.

It will bring together governments from nearly 200 countries to decide on actions to meet the agreed target to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030.

The Oxford delegation will take part in the proceedings both in person and online.

It consists of researchers with expertise in areas including conservation and human rights, nature-based solutions, biodiversity finance, climate change, human-wildlife conflict, wildlife trade, land use, and environmental law.

Audrey Wagner, head of the Oxford COP16 delegation and programme coordinator of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative at the University of Oxford, said: "Academia and research have an important role to play at COP16 and within the Convention on Biological Diversity to ensure that political decisions on biodiversity are evidence-based and in line with the latest science.

Audrey Wagner (Image: University of Oxford) "Oxford researchers will be able to share their recent findings contributing to the objectives of the Global Biodiversity Framework, while being on hand to support parties with evidence they may seek for negotiations and implementation, and call out any lack of ambition that goes against what the scientific evidence says we must do to halt and reverse biodiversity loss."

Dr Helen Newing, a research fellow in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science in the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology, is part of the delegation.

Helen Newing (Image: University of Oxford) Her research focuses on conservation and human rights, especially the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in tropical forest areas.

She has produced a new guidance document on conservation and human rights.

She said: "Governments have made impressive commitments in the Global Biodiversity Framework to move towards rights-based approaches to conservation.

"However, conservationists need practical tools on how to make this happen. Our new guidance is designed to meet this need."

Hannah Nicholas is the coordinator of Conservation and Sustainability Consortium of Academic Institutions, a network that brings together higher education institutions from across the UK working on finding sustainable and socially just responses to biodiversity loss.

Hannah Nicholas (Image: University of Oxford) Also part of the Oxford delegation, she said: "The biodiversity crisis requires coordinated international action, with input from different sectors and knowledge systems.

"At COP16, we hope to emphasise the important role that science and academia can play in informing biodiversity conservation policy.

"It is essential that we strengthen partnerships for effective mobilisation of capacities and resources, share existing knowledge and expertise, and push for greater capacity-building and development internationally."