In October, CJA sent a delegation of four members and one staff to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia. The delegation aimed to build relationships with other movements in the region while engaging with the negotiations process and supporting our allies in making interventions against false
solutions.
During the trip, our allies at the Indigenous Environmental Network arranged a meeting with a local community rooted in the Sendero Calima Urban Forest. The project started when the community came together to plant trees in an effort to protect that part of the city from flooding by the nearby river. It has since grown to include gardens, a playground and even a burial ground for beloved pets. People from around Cali go
there now to be in community and learn how to reconnect with the Earth.
The site visit was a restorative break from the profit-driven environment at CBD. There were some powerful voices at the CBD – mostly from Indigenous communities, communities of African descent and others from the Global South – who were advocating for real solutions to biodiversity loss. But industry and governments from the Global North were also there hoping to profit from the crisis by privatizing nature and pushing dangerous techno-fixes, like geoengineering and “synthetic biology.”
There were some victories by social movements – after two weeks of struggle, there was an agreement to establish a permanent subsidiary body that will give Indigenous peoples a voice in the implementation of traditional knowledge and practices in protecting biodiversity. Social movement organizations were also able to work with parties to get language into the CBD agreement text that reinforces a de-facto moratorium on geoengineering.
Still, industry made it clear that they will continue to push dangerous distractions that will allow them to profit while maintaining their destruction of biodiversity. One popular false solution being pushed were biodiversity offsets – a way of justifying the destruction of one biodiverse ecosystem by “protecting” another. Often “protection” of an ecosystem means privatizing resources and displacing Indigenous communities. These are comparable to carbon offset projects, which have been shown repeatedly to be harmful, ineffective and fraudulent. And despite the effective moratorium on geoengineering established by parties to the London Protocol, industry is still intent on dangerous, wide-reaching experiments like solar radiation management and marine geoengineering. The London Protocol sets agreements around the disposal of waste into marine environments.
CJA’s delegation brought critical voices from land-based communities, islands and the Arctic who spoke out against the false solutions in the space, and brainstormed ways to bring lessons about threats they saw at the international level back to their communities. Looking ahead, members are looking to apply the lessons learned from CBD to plan for a robust CJA delegation to the UNFCC COP30 in Belém, Brazil next year.
Social movements are intent on making interventions in COP30, one of the few to be in the Global South. Both the UNFCCC and biodiversity processes have been captured more and more by corporations looking to push false solutions and profit from crises. For 30 years, peoples movements have been pushing for real solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises that would serve and empower communities.
At the start of COP29, climate experts made the bold assertion that the summits no longer serve their purpose and we need to shift from negotiations to implementation. Brazil will be a critical moment to come together as social movements from around the world to demand governments take substantial action on the climate. Stay up to date on CJA’s international organizing on the road to COP30. | 
