Linking Biodiversity and Climate Agendas through Animal Welfare-Friendly Farming

We attended the UN biodiversity negotiations (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Colombia advocating for governments to recognise the critical need to end to factory farming and support sustainable farming systems to preserve and restore ecosystems and achieve the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted at COP15.

Factory Farming’s Negative Impacts: 

The intensification of animal farming is one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss by contributing to species extinction, soil and water pollution, and climate change. Local breeds, which foster genetic diversity, are being replaced by a limited number of highly productive breeds resulting in catastrophic animal health and welfare issues.

Factory farming's heavy reliance on chemical fertilisers to produce animal feed for such torture breeding, and its high volumes of manure, result in nutrient pollution; this harms ecosystems through nitrogen and phosphorus runoff. Additionally, deforestation for livestock rearing and animal feed cultivation, particularly in biodiversity-rich regions like Latin America, has caused widespread habitat destruction.

The impact of animal farming also extends to climate change, as it is responsible for a significant portion of methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which are potent greenhouse gases. Climate change exacerbates biodiversity loss by altering ecosystems and threatening species survival.

This cannot continue.

The GBF set several targets related to agriculture including Target 7 aiming at reducing pollution and Target 10 focused on sustainable practices to improve agrobiodiversity.   

Extensive farming practices with excellent animal welfare standards should be promoted by governments to achieve these goals and financed accordingly, including by reforming harmful agricultural subsidies and developing financing mechanisms to implement the sustainable use of agroecosystems.

COP16 represented an important milestone in gauging the global advancement of the GBF for the first time since its signature.

COP16 Outcomes:

Unfortunately, progress has been alarmingly slow, highlighted by the fact that most countries had missed the deadline to submit their updated national biodiversity strategy and action plan (NBSAP) before COP16.  

• By the end of the Conference, only 44 countries out of 196 had published their NBSAPs. Additionally, Parties couldn’t agree on setting a new deadline and settled on an unambitious goal to update their NBSAPs “as soon as possible”.   

• Finance was at the centre of COP16 as countries discussed options to close the $700 billion biodiversity finance gap. Unfortunately, delegations couldn’t achieve an agreement by the end of the Conference to develop a new robust financing mechanism. 
• One key topic that was finally addressed at COP16 was the interlinkages between biodiversity and health. Parties agreed on a voluntary Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health to consider those links in the development of national policies and the implementation of the GBF. Notably, the plan acknowledges the impact of agriculture on biodiversity and calls to leverage sustainable practices to reduce pollution and improve animal welfare standards for their well-being but also to prevent antimicrobial resistance and reduce zoonotic disease risk. 

FOUR PAWS welcomes the invitation to Parties to designate national focal points for biodiversity and health to intensify collaboration between health professionals, national and international organisations and policymakers and will be advocating for the full inclusion of agricultural ministries in the implementation of this plan.

Food Day Insights: 

Our colleague Sophie Aylmer also attended the first ever Food Day hosted at COP16 at the KMGBF Pavilion highlighting the food-biodiversity-agriculture nexus. This high-level event co-hosted by the CBD Secretariat, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO ), the Colombian Presidency of COP16 and the Ministry of Agriculture of Colombia. The emphasis was on how sustainable and resilient food systems are key to achieving almost all the GBF targets.

Final Impression:  

While animal welfare is referenced in several biodiversity strategies and considered on key interlinkages such as health and climate change, FOUR PAWS wants to see this momentum from COP16 move into implementation. We expect a far stronger commitment from governments to transition away from industrial animal farming to meet urgent global environmental goals.  

We look forward to continuing engaging with parties in Baku at COP29 later this month.

#COP16 #GBF #BiodiversityLoss #FactoryFarming #Ecosystems #ClimateCrisis #COP29 #FAO