COP15: four things to take away from the final agreement
Chinese Minister of the Environment, Huang Runqiu, flanked by Canadian Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, and the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Diversity Biological Officer, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema.
The 195 member countries of the 15th United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP15) in Montreal approved a text of 23 objectives early this morning, which aims to protect nature by 2030.
< p>It’s at 3:30am last night that the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted. An agreement described as “historic” by Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. Here is what to remember about this new global agreement.
Protect 30% of the planet
This is the text's flagship objective: to protect “at least 30% of land, inland waters and coastal and marine areas” in order to strengthen “ecological integrity and connectivity”. The latter designates the degree of connection between the different natural environments within the same space.
In addition to being protected, degraded terrestrial and marine ecosystems will be “subject to effective restoration”.
These 30%, on the other hand, represented a minimum to be achieved for some scientists and some NGOs, hoping to reach 50%. Remember that currently, 17% of the land and 8% of the seas are protected in the world.
Respecting the rights of indigenous peoples
Among the measures, the agreement makes it possible to recognize and respect “the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, including on their traditional territories”.
Respect for their rights concerns in particular the harvesting and trade of wild species, which must respect and “protect the customary sustainable uses” of indigenous peoples and local communities. Their representation and participation in decision-making are also discussed.
Provide international aid
A biodiversity trust fund will be established to assist developing countries and less advanced. It will reach at least $20 billion a year by 2025, and at least $30 billion by 2030.
This fund will have to be financed by the most developed countries, but also by “countries which voluntarily assume the obligations of developed countries”. This clarification would eventually make it possible to include a country like the United States, which is not a signatory to the Convention, in the fund.
Reduce global pollution
Goal Seven of the agreement aims to reduce pollution risks by 2030, “to levels that are not harmful to biodiversity”.
A place is also given to the overall risk linked to pesticides and highly dangerous products, which will be “halved at least”, in particular by the fight against parasites. However, no point relates specifically to limiting the widespread amount of pesticides in biodiversity.
Furthermore, this reduction will need to consider “food security and livelihoods”.
The anger of African countries
The adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework was considered too fast by some African countries such as Cameroon, which described the adoption of the agreement as a “passage en force”.
Uganda denounced the way in which the agreement was organised, indicating a lack of time to be able to analyze the texts, provided the day before.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo meanwhile expressed at the start of the plenary that she saw herself “unable to support the adoption of the global framework for biodiversity in its current state”.
