(Geneva) Protecting at least 30% of the planet by 2030 is the most prominent goal of international negotiations to better protect biodiversity, but agreeing on a percentage is only part of the story. equation, warn attendees.
Posted at 2:57 p.m.
Delegations from around the world were meeting until Tuesday in Geneva to draft an agreement on the protection of biodiversity, which will be adopted at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in China.
NGOs hope it will help stop the destruction of nature, after countries have failed to meet their commitments for the past decade.
A coalition of 91 countries wants to protect at least a third of land and oceans globally by 2030, a goal dubbed 30×30 and included in the negotiated text.
A quantified target is “easy to aim for and measure” but is only part of the equation, notes Trevor Sandwith, director of the Center for Conservation Action at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The agreement to be adopted in Kunming should also ensure that protected areas are managed efficiently and equitably.
The subject is particularly sensitive for indigenous peoples, who are struggling to protect their ancestral lands and ways of life.
Indigenous communities live in territories that are home to 80% of the remaining biodiversity on Earth, according to a recent report by UN climate experts (IPCC).
In 2020, 17% of the land surface was protected and almost 7% of marine and coastal areas. The initial target was 17% and 10%.
100%
To reach 30%, the delegations rely on “other effective and equitable conservation measures” (OECM in English), including areas with human activities compatible with the protection of nature.
This paves the way for the inclusion of lands managed and owned by indigenous peoples. But after years of forced marginalization and displacement, their representatives want to be sure that their communities will have a say.
“The notion of putting nature under glass has not been good for indigenous peoples”, comments Jennifer Tauli Corpuz, of the Nia Tero association and representative of indigenous peoples at the CBD.
However, she welcomed “enormous support” from negotiators for the rights of indigenous peoples.
While the 30×30 target is widely supported, adopting it “will not be easy”, warns a delegate from a northern country. South Africa and China, hosts of COP15, are nervous about it, he said.
China wants this goal to be national, says Masha Kalinina of the NGO New Trusts, which followed the negotiations. This “would exclude the high seas, two-thirds of our planet,” she worries.
India has joined the countries supporting the 30×30. The country has protected 22% of its territory through national parks and reserves for tigers and increasing these protected areas would be “very difficult” because of strong competition for land, explains to AFP Vinod Mathur, president of the National Biodiversity Authority of India, present in Geneva.
His department mapped the country to find areas that could become OECMs, such as water reservoirs or vast private land.
The negotiating session in Geneva ended on Tuesday without having negotiated the 30×30 target in detail.
Beyond the percentage, we must focus on the quality of the protected territories, insists Heather Bingham, who leads the Protected Planet initiative.
“It’s a big challenge: we know quite well where the protected areas are, but not how effective they are,” she adds. The use of satellite data could be a game-changer.
For Linda Krueger of the NGO Nature Conservancy, new protected areas will have to pass a test. “We need to see that biodiversity is maintained or enhanced there,” she says.
The objective of protecting at least 30% of the planet should not overshadow the efforts needed to preserve nature elsewhere, by increasing green spaces in cities or reducing pesticides in agriculture.
“We need 100%, we have already lost too much nature,” she adds.