Lobbyists for pesticide and fertiliser producers are pushing "behind the scenes" against stronger protection for species and ecosystems at the COP15 biodiversity conference, research showed Thursday.

Delegates in Montreal for the meeting, which started this week and runs until December 19, aim to finalise a new framework for "living in harmony with nature", with key goals to preserve Earth's forests, oceans and species.

InfluenceMap, a think tank that monitors communications by companies and industry associations, said it "tracked lobbying between 2020 and 2022 that has sought to weaken both the targets themselves and steps toward their implementation in the EU and the US.

"As COP15 gets underway to finalise new biodiversity goals, major industry lobbyists are working behind the scenes to try to water down policy ambition," said the author of the research, InfluenceMap program manager Rebecca Vaughan.

"We've tracked efforts from industry associations representing some of the world's biggest pesticide and fertiliser producers... strongly resisting global and EU targets for reducing the use of biodiversity-harming agrichemicals."

It tracked submissions they made to the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and communications obtained through Freedom of Information requests.

Examples included the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA), which the report said opposed targets for reducing losses of nutrients linked to crop production.

- 'Constructive dialogues' -

The director general of the IFA, Alzbeta Klein, said: "This report misrepresents the activities of the fertiliser industry in the area of biodiversity and in particular, the adoption of global targets.

"The industry recognizes the critical importance of biodiversity protection for the well-being of people and the future of the planet, and is mindful of its role and responsibility in helping to avoid and reverse global biodiversity losses," she told AFP.

The IFA said in a separate statement that it was "actively involved" in the CBD negotiations by providing expertise and information on agricultural practices to set a "realistic, achievable" target on sustainable resource management.

One of the companies named in the report, German chemicals giant BASF, said it took part in "constructive dialogues" at the request of policymakers, advising on ways to limit environmental impact and aid biodiversity.

"BASF supports the preservation of ecosystems and promotes the sustainable use of natural resources," a BASF communications executive, Christian Zeintl, told AFP.

"We believe that crop protection can go hand in hand with biodiversity in agriculture."

- 'Corporate capture' -

The InfluenceMap report also pointed to fishery lobby groups that oppose one of COP15's headline initiatives: to protect 30 percent of the world's land and oceans by 2030.

A previous InfluenceMap study in October documented cases of oil associations lobbying against protection for threatened species such as some bees, seals and polar bears.

The head of the CBD Elizabeth Mrema said at a briefing in November that the majority of people registering for COP15 were non-government "stakeholders, including the business and financial institutions.

"This clearly indicates the awareness of the private sector of their role of also contributing to actions to reduce the loss of biodiversity," she said.

Friends of the Earth issued a report on "corporate capture" at COP15, arguing that "the participation of big business in the CBD reveals a fundamental conflict of interest.

"The impact of corporate influence on the CBD COP15 can already be seen in the draft Global Biodiversity Framework," it said.

"Far from being transformative, it fails to address unsustainable production methods and allows for 'business as usual'".

Civil society wants voice heard at COP15 biodiversity meeting
Montreal (AFP) Dec 8, 2022 - Protests, public debates and film screenings: this is the other side of the COP15 summit, where NGOs are mobilizing to raise awareness of the need to protect biodiversity and lobbying for a major deal to do just that.

To coordinate and amplify their voices, over a hundred organizations recently banded together to create the "COP15 Collective" ahead of the December 7-19 conference in Montreal.

"It's no longer just a question of environmentalists. Everyone is around the table, everyone wants to do something and it's super encouraging," the group's spokeswoman Anne-Celine Guyon told AFP, calling it a "historic" moment for Canada's Quebec province.

And they've vowed to be heard: inside the convention center where delegates are meeting, participating in the negotiation process, and marching in the streets.

Meetings that are open to all, humorous and artistic workshops, an immersive wall projection on the impacts of oil drilling on whales -- some sixty events are planned around the conference in Montreal.

The top event will arguably be a "great march for the living" planned in the city's downtown on December 10. Organizers expect thousands of participants, but acknowledge that it's far fewer than the half a million who came out to march with climate activist Greta Thunberg in September 2019.

- 'Political momentum' -

After the pandemic disrupted student gatherings over the past two years, COP15 will be "an important meeting to reconnect, to renew relationships", says 20-year-old Albert Lalonde, a project manager with the David Suzuki Foundation.

Due to exams though, students -- usually on the frontlines of climate protests -- may not be as present at COP15, Lalonde adds.

Despite the fact that no government leaders are planning to attend except Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, all are hoping the COP15 summit achieves "a political momentum similar to the Paris agreement" with the adoption of an "ambitious global framework," says Eddy Perez, another spokesperson for the collective.

A recent Greenpeace poll showed that, in Canada, eight out of ten people believe the government should lead by example by making strong commitments to protect nature.

"People are getting the message that this is important, that we are going through a crisis, that there are thousands of species that are in danger on our planet," believes Marie-Josee Beliveau of Greenpeace's Canadian branch.

Full of hope for this "crucial meeting," she said negotiators should know "a very mobilized civil society" is closely following the talks.

There is "a lot of interest, all of a sudden, for the issues of protecting biodiversity, probably as we have never felt," suggests Anne-Sophie Dore, an environmental lawyer and lecturer.

She adds that real educational work remains to be done, as "most people didn't even know that biodiversity COPs existed compared to climate COPs."

Canada's Indigenous population, as elsewhere, has claimed for a long time that more attention should be given to the living environment. According to UN climate experts, their traditional lands are home to 80 percent of the remaining biodiversity on Earth.

"During time immemorial, the caribou saved us," explains Jerome Bacon St-Onge, member of the Innu people in Canada's far north, evoking a "sacred species" for the Indigenous way of life, precious for its meat and its fur in particular.

"The fact that it is wasting away, it causes us very, very heavy damage in terms of cultural identity," he said, warning that "time is running out" to act.

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