“Biodiversity, and the benefits it provides, is fundamental to human well-being and a healthy planet,” the draft plan reads. “Despite ongoing efforts, biodiversity is deteriorating worldwide and this decline is projected to continue or worsen under business-as-usual scenarios.”
The convention aims to stabilize our fragile biodiversity by 2030 and allow ecosystems to recover by 2050, allowing for a final vision of “living in harmony with nature” — but these goals will require urgent action on both local and global levels.
To achieve this, the draft plans lays out 20 targets for the next decade, ranging from carbon emission reduction to food sustainability.
One target is to give protected status to sites important for biodiversity — covering at least 30% of these land and sea areas by 2030, with at least 10% under “strict protection.” Another target is to cut pollution from biocides, plastic wastes, and excess nutrients by at least 50%.
Other 2030 targets include ensuring that the trade of all wild species is legal and sustainable, bringing greater sustainability to economic sectors and individual consumption, and empowering indigenous communities in the conservation effort.
Some targets focus on the quality of human life, like providing better food security and clean water for the most vulnerable communities — which are then expected to reduce “human-wildlife conflict,” the draft plan said.
The plan will be finalized and adopted in October at a biodiversity summit in Kunming, China.
Earth has entered its sixth mass extinction
For years, scientists have warned that we are in the midst of a mass extinction — the sixth in the planet’s history, and the first one caused by humans.
The main threats are shrinking habitats, the exploitation of natural resources, climate change and pollution, said the 2019 UN report. Humans have altered 75% of Earth’s land and 66% of marine ecosystems since pre-industrial times — changes that come in different forms, from waste dumped into oceans to human-introduced invasive species.
A huge part of the problem lies in population growth, rising demand, and depleted resources. With a growing population, we have more mouths to feed, but fewer resources than ever. The planet’s declining biodiversity threatens agriculture, placing our livestock breeds and crops at risk.
But the population boom won’t end anytime soon. The draft plan released Monday warned that the current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030 and 9.8 billion by 2050 — with severe “implications for the demand for resources, including food, infrastructure and land use.”
Source : Nbcnewyork