COP10 Conference

In October 2010, the tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD-COP10) was held in Nagoya, Japan from 18 to 29 October 2010. The United Nations have declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, the International Year of Youth and the Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures. The International Youth Forum Go4BioDiv-World Heritage, which took place in parallel to COP10, was embedded into this broader framework. This initiative carried on the achievements of the Youth Forum held during COP9 in Bonn, Germany, in 2008.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted in 1992 at the UN Summit on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The Conference of the Parties is the supreme policy body of the Convention; it takes place every two years. Around 18,000 delegates from 190 member state participate. Japan chaired the conference as the delegates debate measures for protecting biodiversity. In addition to the conservation of biological diversity, they discussed the sustainable use of these resources and the issues of access and benefit-sharing.

The key themes addressed at COP10 were: forest conservation, the designation and financing of protected areas, conservation of plant and animal, genetic diversity in agriculture, the development of an access and benefit-sharing system, and the missed target of substantially reducing the loss of biodiversity worldwide by 2010.

The two most important outcomes are the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Japan also hosted the 5th Meeting of the Parties (MOP5) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety from 11 to 15 October 2010.