Convention on Biological Diversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a multilateral environmental agreement opened for signature at the Rio Earth Summit on 5 June 1992 and entered into force on 29 December 1993. It is one of the three "Rio Conventions," alongside the UNFCCC and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

The CBD has three stated objectives:

• the conservation of biological diversity;
• the sustainable use of its components; and
• the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources.

The Convention is near-universal in membership, though the United States has signed but not ratified it. Governance is led by the Conference of the Parties (COP), supported by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and a Secretariat based in Montreal.

Two protocols sit under the CBD framework:

• The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2000, in force 2003), governing transboundary movement of living modified organisms.
• The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (2010, in force 2014), regulating access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits from their use.

Parties have also adopted successive strategic frameworks. The Aichi Biodiversity Targets under the 2011–2020 Strategic Plan largely went unmet, prompting adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15 in December 2022. The GBF includes the headline "30 by 30" target — conserving at least 30% of land and sea areas by 2030 — and 23 action-oriented targets.

For MUN and policy researchers, the CBD is significant because it is the principal global instrument linking conservation to development, indigenous peoples' rights (notably through Article 8(j) on traditional knowledge), and intellectual property debates over genetic resources. It also intersects with the WTO TRIPS Agreement, the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, and increasingly with climate negotiations through "nature-based solutions."