"We only know of about 10 percent of the species that exist on Earth. Some disappear without even having been described, nor ever seen by any human being." Shocked by this statistic? Then you will likely find it even more startling to know that approximately 25 percent of those known species are threatened, meaning that an alarming 1 million species already face extinction over the next few decades as we enter what scientists have deemed the “sixth era of mass extinction.”
These alarming figures were revealed this past week by Anne Larigauderie, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the body formed to strengthen the science-policy interface for ecosystem services. Indeed, the research carried out by IPBES has taken center stage at the United Nations meeting in Geneva, dominating biodiversity negotiations among international policymakers. Since Monday, world leaders have been working together to strengthen a draft global biodiversity agreement that is set to better protect the invaluable “‘services’ nature supplies: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that yields the food we eat,” as put by Agence France-Presse. With countries falling short of almost all the biodiversity targets previously set in 2010, and climate change having the power to compound the effects of biodiversity loss, the pressure is on to develop an effective framework that all nations can agree on at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15 in China this August.
As it currently stands, the draft outlines around twenty targets to be achieved by the agreement signatories by 2030. One such objective of the framework is to reduce the amount of fertilizers and pesticides discharged into the environment; by cutting at least $500 billion per year of subsidies harmful to nature and ecosystems, policymakers believe a significant impact can be had within the farming sector. Another objective is to reduce pollution and plastics, the draft proposal aiming to require that $700 billion be used for sustaining or improving overall biodiversity. In addition, the framework is set to establish specific monitoring and enforcement mechanisms that will ensure a continuous global effort towards the approved objectives.
Of course, the proposed agreement is not without its criticism. Although the draft includes some highly-ambitious objectives that sincerely challenge the current rate of biodiversity loss, “many observers feel [it] lacks the teeth needed to meaningfully address interconnected biodiversity and climate crises that cannot be solved in isolation,” according to global environmental nonprofit The Nature Conservancy. While some dispute the agreement’s effectiveness, others scrutinize the objectives themselves. In particular, the agreement’s goal to protect at least 30 percent of the Earth’s land and water habitats, promoted by governments and international NGOs alike, is experiencing growing opposition from many organizations and biodiversity experts out of fear that the plan will not recognize the rights of Indigenous People. According to Sophie Grig, Senior Researcher for Survival International’s conservation campaign, “Up to 300 million people could be directly displaced and dispossessed. Many will be Indigenous people, who have protected their lands for millennia.” In fact, studies conducted by the Rainforest Foundation UK on protected areas in the Congo basin found that the lack of presence of Indigenous communities in the once-inhabited forest has actually caused animal populations to decrease and illegal extractive activities (such as mining) to increase, proving community-based conservation, which empowers Indigenous people instead of evicting them from their ancestral lands, is the best option.
Despite the shortcomings of the drafted agreement identified thus far, it is important to recognize the significance of this international agreement and what it could mean for the preservation and proliferation of healthy ecosystems across the globe. While it may take a while until we globally achieve the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s vision of “Living in Harmony with Nature,” the implementation of this framework will demand nations who have historically exploited their land and sea to adopt more sustainable practices, allowing us to minimize habitat loss and reduce the projected rate of extinction.
Benjamin Tremblay
Works Cited
Agence France-Presse. “UN Holds Biodiversity Talks on Deal to Stave off Mass Extinction.” France 24, 11 Mar. 2022, https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220311-un-holds-biodiversity-talks-on-deal-to-stave-off-mass-extinction.
Agence France-Presse. “UN Launches Biodiversity Talks on Deal to Protect Nature.” France 24, 14 Mar. 2022, https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220314-un-launches-biodiversity-talks-on-deal-to-protect-nature.
IPBES (2019): Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. S. Díaz, J. Settele, E. S. Brondízio E.S., H. T. Ngo, M. Guèze, J. Agard, A. Arneth, P. Balvanera, K. A. Brauman, S. H. M. Butchart, K. M. A. Chan, L. A. Garibaldi, K. Ichii, J. Liu, S. M. Subramanian, G. F. Midgley, P. Miloslavich, Z. Molnár, D. Obura, A. Pfaff, S. Polasky, A. Purvis, J. Razzaque, B. Reyers, R. Roy Chowdhury, Y. J. Shin, I. J. Visseren-Hamakers, K. J. Willis, and C. N. Zayas (eds.). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 56 pages.
Jaay, Charlie. “Why the Plan to Protect 30% of the Planet by 2030 Is Terrible News for Indigenous People.” Euronews.green, 15 Mar. 2022, https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/03/15/why-the-plan-to-protect-30-of-the-planet-by-2030-is-terrible-news-for-indigenous-people.
Jahnz, Adalbert, and Anna Wartberger. “COP15 Global Biodiversity Negotiations: EU Leading the Ambition for a New Deal to Protect People and Planet.” European Commission, 14 Mar. 2022, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_1747.
“UN Pushes to Save Planet's Biodiversity.” i24NEWS, 16 Mar. 2022, https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/environment/1647435104-un-pushes-to-save-planet-s-biodiversity.
“What Is IPBES?” IPBES: Science and Policy for People and Nature, 2022, https://ipbes.net/about.
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