Heriot-Watt environmental lawyer to help progress decisions at UN biodiversity conference

An expert in ocean management and marine biodiversity at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh is to attend the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference next week.

Dr Daniela Diz, an international environmental lawyer and Associate Professor in Environmental Law at the University’s Lyell Centre, will travel to the city of Cali in Colombia, South America, for the event, where countries progress international goals to protect biodiversity – the variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals and ecosystems.

The 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference – known as COP16 – takes place from 21 October to 1 November and will focus on progressing a historic global biodiversity framework with the vision that humans will live “in harmony with nature” by 2050.

Called the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the framework sets out 23 global targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss both on land and in the marine and coastal environment by 2030.

Dr Diz’s role will include helping to finalise ways to describe 300 new ‘Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas’ (EBSAs) that have been identified in the world’s oceans to date.

“These areas are all over the world, including the Northeast Atlantic, Northwest Atlantic, Southeast Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Pacific and Arctic,” Dr Diz explains. “Some of them are important because they are very unique or unspoiled. Others might be important spawning grounds or habitats for certain species. For example, the Sargasso Sea EBSA in the Northwest Atlantic is an important habitat for species including eels, sharks, birds, turtles and deep water corals and sponges.”

Dr Diz will also contribute to a decision due at COP16 on marine and coastal biodiversity.

“The most important thing is agreeing on a list of gaps or areas that need further attention from the Convention,” she explains. “For example, we need further guidance on ecological restoration in the marine environment, or on the role of blue carbon ecosystems. These are coastal and marine ecosystems that store carbon, like seagrass meadows, tidal marshes and mangroves, as well as other important offshore ecosystems.”

Another important focus for Dr Diz at COP16 is strengthening how the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will be implemented in the marine environment.

She says: “I hope the monitoring system for the framework is finalised and adopted in a way that its implementation can be tracked and reported on robustly, so we can see what kind of further biodiversity actions are needed. We don’t have much time, because the framework’s targets are due by 2030, just six years away. So we need to really have good decisions coming out of the COP to help with implementation.”

Dr Diz has been attending UN biodiversity and ocean-related negotiations since 2008 and has been working in the field of environmental law since 1997.

“I wanted to do something at the global level, because environmental issues are so interconnected and trans boundary – you can't solve them on a national level alone,” she says. “Biodiversity is the foundation of life on our planet and without it, species have no resilience and ecosystems can’t function.”

At a side-event to COP16, Dr Diz will also give a talk about ecological connectivity in the East Pacific, led by partners including the Colombian Ministry of Environment and the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific, a maritime organisation representing Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

A total of 196 countries have signed and ratified – officially approved – the Convention on Biological Diversity – the overarching international agreement that is progressed at the UN Biodiversity Conferences.

The COP16 event in Colombia takes place ahead of this year’s 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 29), which meets from 11 to 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Sciences and Technology is one of Europe's leading centres in Earth, marine and ecosystem sciences. The centre is a joint research initiative with British Geological Survey and is one of four global research institutes at Heriot-Watt University focused on using innovative research and technologies to address global challenges.

Read more about Dr Diz's research on our Lyell Centre research pages.