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Shane Gross/naturepl.com
AS THE world examines the outcome of the COP26 climate summit, spare a thought for conservationists trying to protect the planet’s natural riches. A landmark UN biodiversity summit has been postponed three times because of the pandemic and now won’t be held in person in China until April, after a first session was held virtually last October.
The delay means that, incredibly, there are currently no global goals for stopping biodiversity loss. While countries missed most of the targets set for 2020, a new set of goals for 2030 – known as the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework – is still seen as essential for slowing and eventually reversing the decline of wildlife and habitats.
“I’m really hopeful that what’s adopted in Kunming will help move the needle on biodiversity,” says Susan Lieberman at the Wildlife Conservation Society, referring to the Chinese city where the COP15 biodiversity summit will be hosted.
Chief among the possible outcomes is a pledge to designate 30 per cent of land and oceans a protected area by 2030, building on the 2020 pledge to protect 17 per cent of land and 10 per cent of the oceans. More than 70 countries, including India and the UK, have already thrown their support behind the idea. But key nations home to biodiversity hotspots are still missing, notably Brazil, Indonesia and COP15’s host, China.
There is much more on the agenda for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to be agreed in Kunming. The “ecological integrity” of those enlarged protected areas – in other words, whether they are still functioning, healthy ecosystems – will be debated. Where to site them will come under the spotlight. And, vitally, countries will discuss how tough to be on language about reducing agricultural subsidies, some of which drive the conversion of forests to land used for palm oil, soya beans and cattle.
Negotiations were set to continue in January in Geneva, Switzerland, but were postponed to March due to the omicron coronavirus variant.
The elephant, or perhaps bat, in the room is covid-19. “We can’t look at the next decade on biodiversity without looking at how we prevent the next one of these [pandemics],” says Lieberman. Research shows that degrading and destroying wild areas makes it more likely that diseases in wildlife transfer to humans.
Following in the tailwind of the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed at COP26, there will be pressure for governments to align their action on biodiversity and climate change.
The final text of the Glasgow deal emphasised the “importance of protecting, conserving and restoring nature and ecosystems” to meet the world’s goal of holding global warming to 1.5°C. And, on the sidelines of COP26, more than 100 countries agreed to halt deforestation by 2030, though it is unclear how that will happen or how they will be held to account.
One thing that government negotiators ducked in Glasgow was explicitly stating that forests, peatland, seagrass meadows and other habitats can act as “nature-based solutions” that are of “critical importance” for combating climate change. An initial draft of the pact used such wording, but all of this was later cut.
Brazil, which under president Jair Bolsonaro is keen to exploit the Amazon rainforest, is strongly opposed to the idea of nature-based solutions. The phrase features in a first draft of next year’s biodiversity deal, but may well be cut in the run-up to Kunming.
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