Biodiversity Post-2020
Biodiversity means life variety. It entails ecosystems and the genetic differences in species that sustain life on the planet. Nature provides essential goods and services for human survival on the planet including food, raw materials, regulation of the climate and water cycles as well as pollution control, and protection against floods and droughts, among many others.?
Despite its multiple benefits, we are exhausting the planet′s biodiversity at unprecedented rates. Nowadays, over 1 million species are endangered, ? of terrestrial and marine ecosystems have been altered and 66% of fisheries are over-exhausted. If the trend continues, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimates that 90% of terrestrial ecosystems on earth will be altered by 2050.
Land use changes to expand agriculture and urbanization processes constitute the main driver of biodiversity loss. Currently, 25% of the planet′s surface is used for food production, extraction of natural resources and human settlements. In order to free land for agricultural and urban use, as well as to extract natural resources, humans have cut 3 trillion trees, equivalent to half the tree surface that originally existed on the planet. Moreover, land use change for agricultural purposes is responsible for about 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. Ironically, in the next years, climate change will become the main driver of biodiversity loss.
With the goal of halting global biodiversity loss, In 1992, 168 United Nations member countries subscribed to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). To achieve this goal, in the past 30 years we have adopted 3 protocols and several quantitative and qualitative targets. As a government official, I coordinated Mexico′s delegation when we adopted the latest set of targets in Aichi, Japan, in 2010. However, the achievement of these targets has been insufficient. In 2010, the annual rate of biodiversity loss was 2.5%, today species continue declining at the exact same rate.
This past December, 196 countries adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)" at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15), in Montreal, Canada. The GBF embraced 4 objectives and 23 goals to halt biodiversity loss in 2030 and reverse it in 2050. The GBF proposes more ambitious quantitative targets than the ones approved in Aichi in 2010. Some of the targets proposed by 2030 are: to protect 30% of global terrestrial, marine and coastal surface; to restore 20% of degraded ecosystems; to reduce 50% the introduction of invasive species; to capture 10 gigatons of CO2 a year through nature base solutions, and to double the financial flows towards biodiversity projects.
Economic and financial knowledge on biodiversity has improved remarkably since the Aichi targets were adopted in 2010. Today, we know that goods and services provide by nature are worth over 50% of the global GDP. Moreover, we know that to halt biodiversity loss, we will need to invest close to $400 billion dollars a year in nature-based solutions and nature-positive projects starting in 2025. But that scale of investment will also leverage $10 trillion dollars of business opportunities and 395 million additional jobs by 2030.
In order to halt nature′s decline, it is imperative for governments and companies to design ambitious Nature-Positive Transition Plans (NPTP) to implement the GBF timely and effective. These NPTP should consider measurable and reportable biodiversity targets. But, above all, countries and companies must adopt effective means of implementation to achieve these targets.
Mexico is a megadiverse country. In only 1.4% of the planet′s surface, we hold 10% of its global biodiversity. We have a unique responsibility to advance a solid plan for the implementation Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. ?
Article originally published in Reforma news: https://www.reforma.com/biodiversidad-post-2020-2022-12-10/op239454?pc=102
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