environment
Biodiversity pact not yet on target
Migrating cranes linger in a nature reserve north of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. Photo: Oded Ballilty/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
A new pact for the protection of flora and fauna should be ready by late summer. But how much should that cost? Africa demands up to 700 billion dollars annually. A debate about money and implementation.
Negotiations on an international framework agreement to protect biodiversity ended in Geneva without agreement on a paper ready for signature.
In order to finalize the text for the planned final conference in late summer in Kunming, China, further talks are to take place in Nairobi at the end of June. The approximately 200 participating states agreed on this on Tuesday. “The contracting parties still have a lot to do,” said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, head of the secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
The agreement is to be concluded within the framework of the CBD Convention. It aims to stop the extinction of species, the destruction of nature and the loss of habitats for flora and fauna worldwide. The goal is to protect 30 percent of all sea and land areas by 2030. Currently, only around 8 percent of the seas and 17 percent of the soil are protected.
Rich countries have a duty
A lot of money is needed to implement these goals, but the amount of the funds is still being discussed. African states drew attention to themselves by demanding that rich countries increase their aid payments to 700 billion dollars (638 billion euros) by 2030 in order to support poorer countries in nature conservation.
This is significantly more than was previously provided for in the negotiation text: it states that global funding for biodiversity should be increased from the current $160 billion to at least $200 billion per year. In addition, environmentally harmful state subsidies are to be cut by an annual $500 billion.
At the end of the two-week deliberations, the delegates also did not agree on the milestones to be used to measure progress in protecting biodiversity. According to the CBD Secretariat, the necessity and timing of the stages must be negotiated further.
Environmental organizations called for more political commitment from Germany and other countries to bring the framework agreement to a conclusion. “It is clearly noticeable that the topic of biodiversity is not given the priority in governments that it needs given the urgency of this crisis. That’s fatal, because it’s about our livelihoods,” said Florian Titze from WWF Germany.
“The most important questions remain unanswered: where does the necessary money come from, and how should the protection of 30 percent of the land surface and the oceans be implemented?” criticized Thilo Maack from Greenpeace.