Quality, not just quantity, matters for COP15 "30 by 30" target

By Audrey Tan

A global deal to protect nature and the benefits it provides to people will be negotiated during the United Nations COP15 biodiversity conference that begins today (Dec 7) in Montreal, with a key target of the new biodiversity framework calling for at least 30 per cent of global land and sea areas to be conserved by 2030.

But the choice of lands that are set aside to meet this “30 by 30” target is also crucial, say researchers from the?Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions (CNCS), a research centre under the National University of Singapore’s?Faculty of Science.

A recent study?involving the centre’s researchers found that if governments choose to conserve lands that have little human presence - usually peripheral areas far from urban centres, often dubbed “rock and ice” for their isolated landscapes - the benefits to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation or water purification would not be as significant as if other types of land areas were prioritised for conservation.

Dr Zeng Yiwen, Research Assistant Professor at CNCS and the study’s lead author, pointed to the boreal forests of Siberia as an example of an intact landscape untouched by humans.

"While these areas still have forests and wildlife, and protecting them is important, their species richness and carbon mitigation potential is still not as high as natural habitats in the tropics," he said.

Quality, not quantity

However, if governments chose to prioritise for preservation lands that are important for wildlife, then the co-benefits would be significantly higher, the study published in the scientific journal?Science Advances?found.

Areas important for wildlife refer to places that host a large number of species, including those threatened with extinction, and include areas in India and Indonesia, for instance.

Conserving land areas that are known to be large carbon stores or water quality regulators would also increase the amount of co-benefits that nature can provide to wildlife, the study showed. This includes areas in Malaysia and Brazil.

Natural habitats such as forests are considered nature-based climate solutions as they have the ability to draw down the amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis.

But these ecosystems do not just help humanity’s fight against climate change. Healthy habitats are homes for wildlife, and can also absorb nutrients from groundwater, helping to purify the resource for surrounding communities.

Negotiations of the “30 by 30” goal at COP15 follows an outcome at the COP27 climate talks, which concluded on Nov 20 in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh resort town.

The outcome from the climate talks had, for the first time in history, recognised the importance of nature-based solutions for both climate mitigation and adaptation, setting the stage for greater recognition of nature in humanity’s bid to avert catastrophic climate impacts.

Harnessing nature's potential

The different priorities used in deciding what lands to conserve to meet the 30 by 30 goal - whether they are areas less used by humans, important for wildlife, or key providers of ecosystem services - would impact the degree to which co-benefits could be reaped.

But expanding area-based conservation to 30 per cent of global lands will still have a positive impact overall, the research team found. Currently, only about 16 per cent of global land areas are protected.

By averaging the benefits across the different conservation priorities, the authors found that protecting at least 30 per cent of the global land area could confer protection to over 1,130 vertebrate species whose habitats currently lack any form of protection.

Expansion of the protected area network can save forests from the axe and help humanity leverage nature’s carbon dioxide-sucking powers, contributing 28.4 per cent to global climate change mitigation. A larger network of protected areas can also contribute 28.5 per cent to global nutrient regulation potential, cleansing water.

Dr Zeng said, “By protecting nature, we can save a paradise.”