UN urges faster action as world falls behind on nature protection

Four years ago, nearly all the world's countries agreed to protect 30 percent of the planet's land and seas by 2030, while wealthy nations pledged to provide developing countries with $30 billion (€26 billion) a year to help safeguard biodiversity.

But Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, said progress was still too slow to meet those goals.

“Implementation is not yet happening at the pace and scale needed to achieve [the targets]," Schomaker said in a statement, following nearly three weeks of preparatory negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya.

Representatives from the 196 countries that agreed to the biodiversity framework are due to meet in the Armenian capital Yerevan in October for the COP17 biodiversity conference, where they will assess progress and discuss how to step up their efforts.

“The task awaiting us in Yerevan in nine weeks will take all the stamina and determination that parties can summon,” Schomaker said.

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Conservation gains

The Convention on Biological Diversity stated that governments had recognised that the world was not currently on track to achieve its biodiversity targets.

While there had been “promising efforts on conservation targets”, it said progress had been slower in areas including raising finance, redirecting environmentally harmful subsidies and ensuring more inclusive decision making.

Countries have nevertheless laid out an ambitious framework for halting the destruction of ecosystems and reversing biodiversity loss by the end of the decade.

At the centre of the agreement is a target of conserving at least 30 percent of the world's land, inland waters and seas by 2030 – widely known as the 30 by 30 goal.

Governments are also under pressure to reduce incentives and subsidies that encourage activities harmful to nature, while significantly increasing financial support for biodiversity protection in developing countries.

However, the Convention said differences remained over how countries should strengthen implementation, including during “intense discussions around the Cali Fund”.

Created during the COP16 biodiversity talks in Colombia, the fund is intended to channel a share of the profits made by companies using genetic information derived from plants and animals towards countries and communities that help conserve those resources.

Almost all UN member states are parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The most notable exception is the United States. 

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Five major threats

Scientists and international organisations have repeatedly warned that human activity is driving a rapid decline in wildlife and ecosystems around the world.

The UN identifies five main human-induced causes of the biodiversity crisis – sometimes referred to as the “Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse”.

They are the destruction and alteration of natural habitats, the over-exploitation of resources such as water and wildlife, climate change, pollution and the spread of invasive species.

Agriculture, urban expansion, deforestation, industrial development and the extraction of natural resources have transformed large areas of the planet, while rising temperatures are placing additional pressure on already vulnerable ecosystems.

More than a quarter of the world's animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The Yerevan conference will be closely observed as governments seek to demonstrate that the biodiversity commitments agreed four years ago can still be translated into concrete action before the 2030 deadline.

Despite the slow progress so far, the UN says existing conservation efforts show that countries do have the tools to reverse some of the damage – provided governments can increase funding and turn their pledges into action quickly enough.

(with newswires)