The 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Diversity (CBD) - known as CoP 16 - was held in Cali, Colombia, from October 21 to November 1. It brought together around 15,000 representatives from almost 200 countries to discuss global targets for biodiversity conservation by 2030.
At the event, the Mozambican government was awarded third place in the CDB Clearing House Mechanism Awards. Mozambique was the only country from the Southern African region winning the award and shared the position with Morocco and Malta.
Guilhermina Amurane, National Environment Director, and Hermenegildo Matimele, SBAPP coordinator in Mozambique, with the prize won by Mozambique at COP 16
This award is due to the SIBMOZ online platform, which is the official government portal for biodiversity, developed as part of a partnership between the Ministry of Land and Environment, through the National Directorate for the Environment, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Conservation Monitoring Center, through the CONNECT project. Funding was provided by UNEP (in the case of the CONNECT project) and by the SPEED/USAID project, NORAD, AFD and FFEM (in the case of WCS). SIBMOZ provides summary information and reports on the international biodiversity conventions to which the country has adhered, action plans and legislation, and establishes links with other platforms available online with important information on biodiversity.
This website is a response to the need to make more information about Mozambique's biodiversity available, such as all the products and maps that were developed as part of the project to identify the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), which were formally presented in 2021, as well as the Red Lists of Species and Ecosystems.
SIBMOZ functions as Mozambique's Clearing House Mechanism, i.e. an initiative that is part of the global information exchange network established under the Convention on Biological Diversity CBD (Clearing House Mechanism - CHM) and which all countries that have ratified the convention must operate to share information about their biodiversity. It was launched in May 2021.
Through funds from the SBAPP (Spatial Biodiversity Assessment, Prioritization and Planning) project that supports this initiative, WCS is supporting the National Directorate for the Environment in an upgrade to improve the way SIBMOZ makes biodiversity data available to the public and decision-makers in a useful and easy-to-interpret format, including more information on marine biodiversity. In addition to this upgrade, WCS has developed a communication strategy, with the aim of broadly publicizing the importance and functionalities of SIBMOZ.
It is worth noting that Mozambique is a developing country with a great diversity of species and ecosystems and a wealth of natural resources, and that the richness of its biodiversity plays a fundamental role in its sustainable development.
At CoP 16, WCS-Mozambique was represented by collaborator Hermenegildo Matimele, who coordinates the Spatial Biodiversity Assessment Prioritization and Planning (SBAPP) project in Mozambique.