GYBN at SBI-6

The Eternal city, Rome, is known for its beauty, its seven hills, and amazing food. 

But it is also known by some as a go-to meeting point for certain international meetings, as it is home to the headquarters of the FAO, or Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and where CBD SBI6 was hosted! 

The FAO building is a beautiful yet very confusing building, but perhaps the Daedalus- inspired architecture is a match to the complexity of CBD processes, which, thankfully, get easier to comprehend with time! 

But what is SBI6 and why does it matter?  

What is SBI6?

Biodiversity COPs (UN CBD COPs) are held every two years, with meetings in between to work on implementation of the global biodiversity framework (SBIs) or on technical, technological and scientific matters (SBSTTAs). Put simply, COPs are where countries approve the text that defines international action to protect biodiversity, and Subsidiary Bodies - SBs (SBIs and SBSTTAs) are where countries prepare the text for COP (but no text can be approved). 

The Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) has a mandate to provide expert advice and recommendations related to the review of progress, strategic actions and strengthening means of implementation of the CBD. SBI6 was the sixth meeting of the SBI, and was held in Rome in February 2026. 

What happened at SBI6? 

7 agenda items were discussed, with parties negotiating the text associated with these items: 

• Item 3. Resource mobilization and financial mechanism 

• Item 4. Mechanisms for Planning, Monitoring, Reporting & Review 

• Item 5. Gender Plan of Action - Midterm Review 

• Item 6. Capacity-building and development, technical and scientific cooperation 

• Item 7. Cooperation with other conventions and international organizations 

• Item 9. Review of the effectiveness of CBD processes 

Main GYBN activities 

At SBI6, the GYBN delegation tracked negotiations and delivered statements and text additions on the 7 items on the agenda, held coordination meetings to prepare the negotiations, met with parties and partners, presented at the COP17 Briefing, and produced communications content to update the community and make CBD processes like SBI6 more accessible. 

In total, 40 youth engaged with negotiations in person and online, GYBN delivered 5 interventions, 17 countries supported GYBN interventions, and 5 policy recommendations were influenced by youth/GYBN! 

Marie delivered the youth statement on the Gender Plan of Action (Agenda item 5).  

Learn more about SBI6 in the associated GYBN report → https://gybn.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/SBI-6-Report.pdf 

SBI-7 

The seventh meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation is taking place between 4th-12th August 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya. Similar discussions will take place during this meeting, serving as one of the last large meetings before COP17 takes place in Armenia this October.

A full summary report of SBI-6 can be found here: https://enb.iisd.org/subsidiary-body-implementation-convention-biological-diversity-cbd-sbi6-summary