Historic deal on biodiversity reached at UN conference

The global framework comes a day before the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity, or COP15, ends in Montreal. China, which holds the chair at this conference, released a new draft earlier in the day that gave the sometimes contentious talks a much-needed boost.

The most significant part of the agreement is the commitment to protect 30% of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030. Currently, 17% of land areas and 10% of marine areas are protected. “There has never been a global conservation target on this scale,” Brian O’Donnell, director of the Campaign for Nature conservation group, told reporters. “This puts us within a possibility of safeguard biodiversity collapse… We are now within the range that scientists believe can make a marked difference in biodiversity.”

The draft also calls for raising $200 billion by 2030 for biodiversity from a variety of sources and working to remove or reform subsidies that could provide another $500 billion for nature. As part of the financing package, the framework calls for increasing the money going to poor countries to at least $20 billion a year by 2025, or nearly double what is currently provided. That number would rise to $30 billion each year by 2030. Some advocates wanted tougher language on the subsidies that make food and fuel so cheap in many parts of the world.

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The document only calls for identifying subsidies by 2025 that can be reformed or phased out and working to reduce them by 2030. “The new text is a mixed bag,” Andrew Deutz, director of global policy, institutions and conservation finance at The Nature Conservancy. , said. “It contains some strong signals on finance and biodiversity, but it fails to move beyond the goals of 10 years ago in terms of addressing the drivers of biodiversity loss in productive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries and infrastructure, and therefore So, it still runs the risk of being completely transformative.”

Government ministers and officials from some 190 countries have largely agreed that protecting biodiversity must be a priority, with many comparing those efforts to the climate talks that concluded last month in Egypt.

Climate change, along with habitat loss, pollution and development, have affected the world’s biodiversity, with a 2019 estimate warning that one million plant and animal species face extinction within decades, a rate of loss 1000 times greater than expected. Humans use around 50,000 wild species on a routine basis, and 1 in 5 people of the world’s 8 billion people depend on these species for food and income, according to the report. But they have wrestled for nearly two weeks to agree on what that protection looks like and who will pay for it. Financing has been one of the most controversial issues, with delegates from 70 African, South American and Asian countries walking out of negotiations on Wednesday. They returned several hours later.

Brazil, speaking on behalf of developing countries during the week, said in a statement that a new financing mechanism dedicated to biodiversity must be established and that developed countries provide $100 billion annually in financial grants to emerging economies until 2030. “All the elements are there for a balance of unhappiness that is the secret to reach an agreement in the UN bodies”,

Pierre du Plessis, a Namibian negotiator who helps coordinate the Africa group, told The Associated Press. “Everyone got a little bit of what they wanted, not necessarily all they wanted. Let’s see if there is a spirit of unity”. Others praised the fact that the document recognizes the rights of indigenous communities. In previous biodiversity papers, indigenous rights were often ignored and were rarely part of the broader debates, apart from a reference to their traditional knowledge.

The framework would reaffirm the rights of indigenous peoples and ensure that they have a voice in any decision-making. “It is important that the rights of indigenous peoples are there, and although at first it is not the exact wording of that proposal, we believe that it is a good compromise and responds to the concerns that we have,” said Jennifer Corpuz, representative of the International Indigenous Forum. on Biodiversity.

“We think it’s a good foundation for us to implement policies at the national level.” the integrity of ecosystems and the maintenance of genetic diversity within populations. They fear that the timeline is not enough ambition.