Delegates are gathering in Rome Feb. 25 through 27 to finalize the most important aspects of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, or CBD COP16, which took place in October in Cali, Colombia.
The conference last October left all the important negotiations until the last minute, and a lack of consensus pushed talks two days past the scheduled end date. By the end of the weekend, many developing country delegates were forced to take flights home, leaving the conference without the quorum needed to reach a consensus.
The three days in Rome this week won’t have the same pomp and circumstance as Colombia, but the discussions will be far more concentrated and experts say they are feeling hopeful about the outcomes.