Latest Resources
19 September 2022
ACB comments on the Draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South AfricaR...
Please find here ACB’s submission to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment regarding the recently published Draft White Paper on Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity, 2022. The current conservation model and practice are founded on historical colonial practices, entrenched in apartheid, of over-exploitation and exclusion of African people. Historical inequalities have remained […]
27 July 2022
Playing chess with the world’s biodiversity. The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and Afri...
A blog by ACB’s Sabrina Masinjila, Linzi Lewis and Mariam Mayet The crafting of a new global biodiversity framework In 2018, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) embarked on multilateral intergovernmental talks toward crafting a new global deal to curb global biodiversity loss (the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).1 The CBD, adopted in […]
25 July 2022
The battle over regulation of new breeding techniques in South Africa
– A blog by ACB Director Mariam Mayet Snapshot In October 2021, the South African (SA) government determined that the regulatory and risk assessment framework that exists for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will also apply to new breeding techniques (NBTs), which make up a host of new genetic engineering technologies. This decision appears to follow […]
22 June 2022
The failure of multilateralism – and rise of corporate capture of the CBD
The current state of the planet, and in particular climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation, reflect on the legitimacy of environmental multilateralism such as the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD). The convergence of the multiple global ecological, climate, and economic crises is not been met with the requisite urgent response and action. Instead, over […]
22 June 2022
Who will fund biodiversity conservation, and its implications for Africa?
Where adequate funds will come from to reduce rampant biodiversity loss is crucial to ensuring the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). African countries are demanding that developed countries pay for their ecological debt, and implementation of the GBF, in terms of Article 20 of the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD). But how will […]
21 June 2022
Where is agricultural biodiversity in the Post-2020 GBF?
While the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) attempts to deal with the indirect and direct drivers of biodiversity decline, as outlined by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Global Biodiversity Outlook Reports, it remains glaringly weak, with serious and severe gaps. We wonder, where does the Post-2020 GBF deal […]
18 March 2022
25th Meeting, 49th Regular Session of Human Rights Council – Presentation of the Special Rapporte...
“The type of seed system you decide to support will determine your ability to tackle hunger, famine and nutrition.” In his report and presentation at the 49th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), on 14 March, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, outlined two types of seed […]
7 September 2021
The African Union Green Recovery Action Plan: Securing Africa’s ecological future or deepening im...
Por favor clique aqui para Português Veuillez cliquer ici pour lire le texte français In July 2021 the African Union (AU) released a Green Recovery Action Plan for the continent, in the context of COVID-19 and climate change. The basis of the plan is that a “clean and resilient recovery in Africa will lead to […]
17 August 2021
Integrate biodiversity targets from local to global levels
On 13 August 2021, the journal Science published an article titled, Integrate biodiversity targets from local to global levels, that included ACB executive director Mariam Mayet and research and advocacy officers Linzi Lewis and Andrew Bennie as co-authors. We are honoured to be part of this incredible team of African scientists, conservationists, and community leaders […]
10 March 2021
Reflections on the Regional Dialogue on African Food Systems, at the Seventh Session of the Afric...
On 4 March 2021, a Regional Dialogue on African Food Systems took place at the Seventh Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. This is the African Centre for Biodiversity’s response to the event. From reading the background document issued to frame the dialogue topics and participants in […]