This Monday is celebrated World Biodiversity Daya day to raise awareness about the crucial role that healthy biodiversity plays in sustaining life on Earth, and which takes place after the historic adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Framework for Biodiversityratified by 196 countries in December 2022.
under the motto From agreement to action: Recovering biodiversitythis May 22 is dedicated to assessing the current environmental crisis and promoting the application of the framework, which contains global objectives to be achieved by 2030 focused on safeguarding and sustainably using biodiversity, while protecting the rights of peoples indigenous and local communities.
“Whether it’s the air we breathe or the food we eat, the energy that drives us or the medicines that heal us, our lives are completely dependent on the good health of ecosystems,” said the General secretary of the UN in a message. “However, our actions are devastating every corner of the planet,” she adds.
António Guterres also urges to guarantee sustainable patterns of production and consumption, reorient subsidies towards ecological solutions and recognize the rights of indigenous peoples. “And you have to put pressure on governments and companies so that they take stronger and faster measures against the loss of biodiversity and the climate crisis”.
International Day for Biological Diversity
One million threatened species
The planet is experiencing a dangerous decline of nature. One million species are threatened with extinction, soils are becoming infertile and water sources are drying up.
To face this reality, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) promotes the protection and restoration of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, the transformation of our food systems and closing the financial gap for nature.
According to the agency’s experts, the success of the framework depends on the financial resources intended for its application, the political will and a strong formulation of guidelines.
“Biodiversity is the complex network on which human existence depends,” says the executive director of the Program.
In this sense, Inger Andersen explains that the framework is “the global plan to repair this network and sustain all life on Earth, including ours. With only seven years to go, we must all act now. And we must keep pushing until our web of life is secure.”
Some Indian elephants roam the Kaziranga National Park, Assam (India).
Avoid the collapse of ecosystems
The environment agency explains that ecosystems generate oxygen, provide drinking water and regulate the climate. They can also provide critical services, such as natural medicines, pollination, and fertile soil for food production. For these reasons, guarantee the stability of the environment.
But both terrestrial and marine life is declining faster than at any other time in history, which could put the balance of ecosystems and, therefore, life on Earth at risk.
To avoid large-scale biodiversity loss and environmental collapse, the framework calls for the effective conservation and management of at least 30% of the world’s lands, inland waters, coastal zones and oceans, as well as the restoration of 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030.
Fish swim over coral nurseries in Corales del Rosario National Park, Colombia.
food systems
According to UNEP, food systems are responsible for most land use change and habitat conversion. And unfortunately, they are the main cause of biodiversity loss and responsible for 80% of deforestation and 70% of freshwater use.
To address this reality, the framework calls for a sustainable management of agricultural, aquaculture and forest areashalving global food waste and a significant reduction in overconsumption and waste production.
Healthy ecosystems are crucial for humanity’s survival.
financial gap
Finally, research from the environment agency shows that nature protection and economic growth can go hand in hand. Nature is a vital capital asset that provides many essential goods and services, with a economic value of 44 trillion dollars.
According to the agency, investing in nature offers the opportunity to generate $10 trillion in business value and create 395 million jobs. Ambitious management could redirect private capital towards a green economy and align financial flows with global biodiversity targets, while avoiding the dangers of using fossil fuels and carrying out projects that harm the environment.
However, investments in nature are not increasing at the scale needed to address biodiversity loss. To help fill the funding gapthe framework calls for at least $200 billion a year in domestic and international funding, from both public and private sources, to be mobilized by 2030. It also calls for phase out subsidies that harm ecosystems by at least $500 billion annually by 2030.
Juvenile king penguins in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Be the change
“Every government, every business, every investor and every individual must do what they can to protect and restore nature, tackle climate change and massively reduce pollution and waste,” the agency’s executive director said. that it will continue to build alliances “to unite everyone in true collective action and end the planetary triple crisis once and for all.”
