Salone Participates in Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice

At the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in December 2022, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), including Sierra Leone, adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF).

This framework has a mission to take urgent action across society to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources, to put biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030 for the benefit of the planet and people.

To translate this into action, the KM-GBF requires that every country have access to the right science, technology, and technical skills for national implementation. The convention’s secretariat established the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) to facilitate this.

These bodies are responsible for undertaking global assessments on the status of biological diversity, types of measures taken per the provisions of the Convention, and the review of effective implementation, mechanisms for planning reports, and progress made by parties to the Global Biodiversity Framework 2023–2030, respectively.

Sierra Leone, represented by the National Focal Point to the CBD who doubles as the Deputy Director of the Natural Resources Directorate at the EPA, Joseph Sapunka Turay, highlighted the setting up of national targets, updating the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), and mobilizing key institutions and organizations as their drive to implementation. He also underscored the importance of building on the current wealth of knowledge and experience to inform decision-making for efficiency.

Sierra Leone gained opportunities for increased accountability and transparency that would help in delivering on its national commitments.

Clear metrics for measuring success, strengthened national capacities for monitoring and reporting progress, as well as a coherent approach to aggregating national data to help review progress at the global scale, and built and strengthened partnerships with global biodiversity institutions (for example, the High Ambition Coalition for People and Nature, the NBSAP Accelerator Programme, and (SPACES) were also highlighted as gains from the meeting.

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