Photograph by: Enric Sala, National Geographic
Following the agreement of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15, Campaign for Nature (CfN) is delighted to announce that a formal partnership between CfN and the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC) has been agreed to deliver on the implementation of 30x30.
December 19, 2022
More than 190 countries have adopted a sweeping agreement to protect nature at the United Nations' biodiversity conference in Montreal.
The gavel went down in the early hours of Monday on an agreement which includes 23 targets aimed at halting the biodiversity crisis, including a pledge to protect 30% of land and oceans by 2030. Only 17% of land and 10% of oceans are currently considered protected. Campaigners have hailed it as a "major milestone" for conserving complex, fragile ecosystems on which everyone depends.
But some countries were unhappy, criticizing the agreement for not going far enough. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has said it cannot support the agreement and has complained that it was rushed through without following proper processes.
December 19, 2022
Los negociadores en una conferencia sobre biodiversidad de Naciones Unidas lograron el lunes de madrugada un acuerdo histórico que supondría el esfuerzo más significativo hasta ahora para proteger la tierra y los océanos y proporcionar financiamiento crucial para salvar la biodiversidad en el mundo en desarrollo.
El marco global se acordó el día antes del final previsto de la Conferencia de Biodiversidad de Naciones Unidas o COP15, en Montreal. China, que ostenta la presidencia de la cumbre, publicó un borrador al inicio de la jornada que dio el impulso necesario a unas conversaciones en ocasiones acaloradas.
La parte más significativa del acuerdo era un compromiso de proteger el 30% de la tierra y el agua consideradas como importantes para la biodiversidad para 2030. En este momento están protegidas el 17% de la tierra y el 10% de las zonas marinas.
“Nunca ha habido una conservación global de esta escala”, dijo a la prensa Brian O’Donnell, director del grupo conservacionista Campaign for Nature. “Esto nos da una oportunidad de evitar el colapso de la biodiversidad (...) Ahora estamos en la escala que los científicos creen que puede marcar una diferencia en la biodiversidad”.
December 19, 2022
Roughly 190 countries early on Monday approved a sweeping United Nations agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 and to take a slew of other measures against biodiversity loss, a mounting under-the-radar crisis that, if left unchecked, jeopardizes the planet’s food and water supplies as well as the existence of untold species around the world.
The agreement comes as biodiversity is declining worldwide at rates never seen before in human history. Researchers have projected that a million plants and animals are at risk of extinction, many within decades. While many scientists and activists had pushed for even stronger measures, the deal, which includes verification mechanisms that previous agreements had lacked, clearly signals increasing momentum around the issue.
“This is a huge moment for nature,” Brian O’Donnell, director of the Campaign for Nature, a coalition of groups pushing for protections, said about the agreement. “This is a scale of conservation that we haven’t seen ever attempted before.”
December 19, 2022
In the early hours of December 19th, negotiators from the 196 parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity rallied to finalize an ambitious, global biodiversity framework inclusive of the 30x30 target and Indigenous Peoples’ rights and recognition, while addressing the cavernous funding gap for biodiversity protection and conservation.
December 2, 2022
The meeting that is meant to be the final part of COP15 takes place in Montreal, Canada, from 5 December to 17 December, following a string of delays and postponements to efforts to create a new global treaty for biodiversity.
The summit was originally planned for Kunming, China, in 2020. It was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently split into two parts, with the first part successfully completed in Kunming in October 2021 and the second meeting in Kunming taking place this spring.
The second meeting was unsuccessful, with no final deal agreed upon. Interim talks in Nairobi were, therefore, added to the UN’s calendar for this summer, and a final meeting scheduled for Kunming in autumn. However, China saw a spike in Covid-19 cases in the first quarter of the year and places including Beijing and Shanghai were put into lockdown because of China’s ‘zero Covid’ approach. And so, more than two years after the summit was meant to have taken place, delegates from UN nations will meet this week to finally agree on a “Paris Agreement style” deal for nature.
November 15, 2022
With just one month to go until COP15 begins in Montreal, Canada, the press reported on Thursday, November 10 that there will not be heads of state at COP15.
This is a very concerning situation considering this critical conference seeks to agree on a pathway to curb the collapse of our entire planetary life support system - one million species are at risk of extinction and unless critical ecosystems are urgently protected we could face serious threats not just to the natural world, but to our climate, health, food and clean water supply.
November 7, 2022
On the first day of COP27, presidents and ministers from Palau, Nigeria, Costa Rica, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States have today affirmed their support for the 30x30 target which commits countries to a global effort to achieve the protection of at least thirty percent of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030 to help curb biodiversity loss and climate change.
His Excellency President of Palau, Surangel S. Whipps Jr, today announced that Palau has joined the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, an intergovernmental group championing the protection of at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030.
Engineer H. Musa, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Environment and Climate Change from the Federal Republic of Nigeria announced that all 15 members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had agreed to support 30x30 as part of an "ECOWAS Appeal for an Ambitious Global Response to the Biodiversity Crisis''.
October 25, 2022
With COP15 in Montreal rapidly approaching, governments are gearing up to create targets on biodiversity for the next decade. The world has so far failed to meet any UN targets on halting the loss of nature, yet awareness of the challenge is greater than ever. Here we examine why this UN meeting matters and how it could herald meaningful action on nature loss.
Nature is in crisis and for the past three decades, governments have been meeting to ensure the survival of the species and ecosystems that underpin human civilization. The Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 saw the creation of three conventions: on climate change, desertification and biodiversity. The aim of the convention on biological diversity (CBD) is for countries to conserve the natural world, its sustainable use, and to share the benefits of its genetic resources.
October 20, 2022
Ahead of the global meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Montréal, Canada, which decides new targets for nature, the first-ever study of its kind outlines an urgent need for larger numbers and better-supported protected area staff to ensure the health of life on Earth. In a new scientific paper published today in the journal “Nature Sustainability”, an international team of scientists – including two members of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in Berlin – argue that there are not enough rangers and other staff to manage even the current protected areas around the world.
The authors urge governments, donors, private landowners and NGOs to increase the numbers of rangers and other staff five-fold in order to meet global biodiversity conservation goals that have economic, cultural and ecosystem benefits.
Read More
October 4, 2022
Australia, which has one of the world’s worst records on extinctions, on Tuesday announced a 10-year plan to prevent any more species from dying out in the country by protecting its most threatened plants and animals.
Launching the plan at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia’s Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek said the Labor government had a “very ambitious target” to conserve more than 30% of Australia’s land mass by 2030.
“We’re talking about an extra 50 million hectares (about 124,000 acres) of landscape that we need to find and to manage in a way that protects the landscape and the species that depend on it,” Plibersek said.
The plan brings Australia into line with more than 100 other countries, including the United States, which have pledged to protect 30% of their land and 30% of their ocean by 2030. The initial coalition of countries announced their commitment ahead of the One Planet summit in 2021.
September 29, 2022
As temperatures rise and habitats shrink, hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species around the world are at risk of vanishing.
For the first time, the United States is designating a special diplomat to advocate for global biodiversity amid what policymakers here and overseas increasingly recognize as an extinction crisis.
Monica Medina is taking on a new role as special envoy for biodiversity and water resources, the State Department announced Wednesday. She currently serves as the department’s assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs.
The appointment underscores the Biden administration’s desire to protect land and waters not just at home but to also conserve habitats abroad.
September 27, 2022
The race to protect the natural world and its biodiversity reaches a critical milestone this December as countries gather for the United Nations’ COP15 meeting.
The stakes for the summit - in Montreal, Canada - could hardly be higher. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres says: “We are losing our suicidal war against nature”.
COP15 aims to give biodiversity the same levels of international protection as the climate.
The race to protect the natural world and its biodiversity reaches a critical milestone this December as countries gather for the United Nations’ COP15 meeting.
The stakes for the summit - in Montreal, Canada - could hardly be higher. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres says: “We are losing our suicidal war against nature”.
COP15 aims to give biodiversity the same levels of international protection as the climate.
September 21, 2022
World leaders on Tuesday stepped up financial support and conservation commitments to combat the global biodiversity crisis that threatens more than one million plant and animal species with extinction.
On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, Germany pledged 1.5 billion euros per year in international biodiversity funding — more than doubling its current commitments.
Nations will soon gather in Montreal, Canada, for a critical U.N. biodiversity summit (COP15) to finalise and adopt a framework to protect and conserve nature.
Over half of the world's GDP depends heavily on the natural world, according to a 2020 report by the World Economic Forum.
The December conference "needs to be a turning point for our conservation efforts", said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as he announced the new funding. "With this contribution, we want to send a strong signal for an ambitious outcome of the biodiversity COP15."
September 21, 2022
World leaders have stressed the importance of increased funding for conservation efforts, after this week highlighting how the upcoming COP15 Biodiversity Summit in Montreal in December represents an essential opportunity for tackling global biodiversity loss.
Speaking at the Countdown to COP15: Landmark Leaders' Event for a Nature-Positive World event in New York yesterday, a series of world leaders declared the success of COP15 represented a priority for their governments, as they called on countries to work together to secure "an ambitious global biodiversity agreement" in Montreal.
Leaders said an ambitious new global accord was urgently required "in the face of an escalating nature crisis that is threatening health, food security, and livelihoods, while undermining climate action and sustainable development".
Leaders from 93 regions and the European Union reaffirmed their commitment to reverse biodiversity loss and secure a 'nature-positive' world by 2030, throwing their weight behind the global campaign to protect and conserve at least 30 per cent of all land and oceans by 2030.
