Zimbabwe has always been proactive and will continue to ensure that its indigenous people and local communities benefit from the proceeds of biodiversity.
Our state is part of close to 200 countries meeting in Colombia for the United Nations COP16 Summit which is working to urgently mobilise billions of dollars to stop the rapid destruction of nature.
Zimbabwe is well represented at the talks which opened on Monday this week in Cali, Colombia.
This is in sync with the vision of the Zimbabwe Government of becoming a middle-income economy by 2030 and the mantra of leaving no one and no place behind.
One of the indicators of a middle-income economy is the evidence of community benefits accruing from the proceeds of biological diversity. This means that communities must benefit from the biodiversity economy namely; forests, wildlife and the environment.
As you may be aware, Zimbabwe developed Statutory Instrument 61 of 2009. The development of Statutory Instrument No. 61 of 2009 on Environmental Management (Access to Genetic Resources and Indigenous Genetic Resource-based Knowledge) Regulations, 2009, was driven mainly by two factors.
The first one was the need to protect Indigenous Knowledge and Genetic Resources. Zimbabwe, like many countries rich in biodiversity and cultural heritage, has a long history of biopiracy, where foreign entities exploit indigenous knowledge and genetic resources without proper recognition or compensation to the communities that have traditionally used and conserved them.
This instrument aims to safeguard the rights of local communities and indigenous people over their genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with them.
The second factor was the statutory compliance with international conventions. Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which promotes the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources. The regulations were developed to align with the CBD's objectives and fulfill Zimbabwe international obligations.
The statutory instrument had very good intentions but had challenges in its implementation because there were no capacity building initiatives that followed the instrument.
The Nagoya Protocol was adopted in 2010 as a supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The key provisions of the Protocol included prior informed consent, mutually agreed terms, benefit - sharing and compliance.
Countries that ratified the protocol were required to develop national legislation and regulations to implement its provisions. Zimbabwe acceded to the Nagoya Protocol on 1st September, 2017 and it entered into force on 30th November, 2017.
The Nagoya Protocol also faced challenges in its implementation due to the complexity of negotiating access and benefit-sharing agreements, lack of awareness among researchers and industry and the difficulty in tracking the use of genetic resources along the value chain.
With the birth of the Kunming-Montreal Global Diversity Framework post COP15, there are now emerging issues that require re-alignment of the statutory instrument and the crafting of a Bill to cater for the developments in UNCBD negotiations.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework has four overarching goals for 2050 and 23 specific targets for 2030. These targets have been grouped into three categories for easier understanding and implementation as follows;
The first category deals with Reducing Threats to Biodiversity. This category focuses on addressing the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, such as habitat destruction, pollution and climate change.
The second category deals with Meeting People's Needs through Sustainable Use and Benefit Sharing. This group emphasises the importance of using biodiversity sustainably to meet human needs while ensuring fair and equitable benefit sharing.
The last category calls for Tools and Solutions for Implementation and Mainstreaming. It focuses on the tools and mechanisms needed to implement the GBF, including strengthening national biodiversity strategies and action plans, increasing public awareness and mobilising financial resources.
As parliamentarians, we are very much in support of progressive legislation that supports the sustainable use and benefit sharing arrangements, recognition and access to benefits by indigenous and local communities once the modalities are finalised through the ongoing biodiversity negotiations.
The recent Parks and Wildlife Amendment Bill (HB.1.2024) which is under consideration by Parliament, extensively provides for the sustainable use and benefit sharing from the wildlife proceeds and the public is in support of those provisions.
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We will ensure that the Environmental Management Amendment Bill that is coming before Parliament soon provides for emerging issues on digital sequence information (DSI) from genetic resources, independent genetic resource-based knowledge especially in the context of biotechnology and economic, social and governance (ESG) reporting among others.
The importance of incorporating biodiversity into ESG reporting is that businesses and organisations can contribute to the global effort to conserve biodiversity, climate change mitigation and pollution reduction, which are core concerns of the UNCBD.
The social aspects of ESG reporting has a focus on equitable sharing of benefits, indigenous peoples' rights and social impacts of biodiversity loss while the governance part ensures transparency, accountability and effective management of biodiversity resources, which are essential for achieving the UNCBD's goals in light of all attendant challenges occasioned by triple threats from the environment, society and the economy.
Sam Matema is chairman of the Portfolio Committee on Environment, Climate and Wildlife
