3 Key Lessons for International Day of Biological Diversity

Nature is facing grave and accelerating threats. Alarming declines in wildlife populations and the deteriorating health of our oceans, forests, and grasslands are nothing short of a global crisis. One million of the planet’s roughly 8 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. Climate change leads to biodiversity loss, which in turn can reduce an ecosystem’s ability to store carbon, thus driving climate change. It’s a vicious cycle.?

At USAID, we recognize the burning imperative to address unprecedented biodiversity loss.??

After more than 30 years working directly with communities, governments, and public and private partners on the ground, we have learned a thing or two about what works best for conservation. Last week, I was invited to share those key lessons with the Senate subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs , and today I’d like to share them with you in honor of International Day of Biological Diversity, which was yesterday.

1. We must ensure long term investment in priority places and habitats.

The importance of long-term investment to specific protected areas, and the communities that live in and around them, cannot be understated. In key areas, USAID makes a sustained commitment–underpinned by rigorous measurement and evaluation. We have often funded the same partner for a decade or more when it produces strong, consistent results. We have also strengthened local voices and organizations to have greater impact in long-term conservation.

2. This kind of long-term conservation investment must work for–and with– Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

A prime example of this is USAID’s work in northern Kenya, which began in the late 1990s in partnership with the African Wildlife Foundation and the Government of Kenya. From those early years to now, we have focused on strengthening local organizations. Today, we support the local Northern Rangelands Trust as our lead partner in the area.?

This decades-long partnership benefits 630,000 people in 39 community-owned and managed conservancies covering nearly 63,000 square kilometers–an area approximately seven times the size of Yellowstone National Park. In addition, it has created jobs for more than 850 eco-rangers, reducing poaching and increasing the elephant, giraffe, wild dog, and buffalo populations.?

3. Communities, governments, and civil society organizations can’t do this work alone, so we’ve got to broaden the funding base by engaging the private sector.

We know firsthand that private sector collaboration is critical to success in conserving biodiversity and advancing development gains more broadly. As of 2021, USAID had nearly 100 active public private partnerships in the environment sector. USAID’s HEARTH initiative (Health, Ecosystems, and Agriculture for Resilient, Thriving Societies), for example, is generating partnerships with businesses such as Mars and Disney to conserve high-biodiversity areas and improve the health, well-being, and prosperity of the communities that depend on them.?

The theme of this year’s International Day of Biological Diversity is “From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity,” referencing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed to at COP15 in December 2022.?Central to this theme is the need to focus on the steps we must take now as a global community.?

At USAID, we are updating our plans to tackle biodiversity by shaping a new policy to shape our global biodiversity work and implementing our 2022-2030 Climate Strategy. We must continuously examine how best to meet the urgency of the moment and focus our efforts to address the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.?

The cost of inaction is simply too great, which is why we are addressing these global challenges simultaneously, building on USAID’s deep commitment to support strong, more resilient landscapes and seascapes for long-term conservation for the benefit of local communities and the global good.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gillian Caldwell is USAID’s Chief Climate Officer and Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation.