GENEVA, Switzerland — Expanding nature reserves to cover
at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030 is the flagship proposal of
high-stakes talks to rescue
Earth's animals and plants from human destruction.
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But experts agree that a new target is the
easy part and will be ineffective without funding and rigorous
monitoring.
Negotiators from across the world are
meeting in Geneva to discuss a draft text of the so-called global
biodiversity framework to be adopted at the UN COP15 meeting in Kunming,
China,
later this year.
A global commitment to set aside at least 30
percent of both land and oceans as protected zones by the end of the decade has
the support of a broad coalition of countries.
"I think the whole world is pretty
convinced that conserving nature is essential for the future of the planet,
even big business, and industry," said Trevor Sandwith, director of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Centre for Conservation
Action.
But while a percentage goal is "easy to
aim at, easy to measure", it only tells part of the story, he said.
The world failed almost entirely to reach a
similar set of 10-year objectives set in 2010 under the UN's Convention on
Biological Diversity.
To avoid past mistakes, Sandwith said that
equity and effectiveness will be key in the way protected areas are governed
and managed.
That is of particular concern to indigenous
peoples, who will play a decisive role in meeting the 30 percent goal.
They steward land home to 80 percent of
Earth's remaining biodiversity, according to a recent landmark
UN report on
climate change impacts.
A more flexible approach to conservation
within the UN process — known as "other effective area-based conservation
measures" (OECMs) — allows for the inclusion of lands that have human
activity and are not solely set aside for nature.
But after years of marginalization and
displacement, indigenous representatives want assurances that communities will
have consent over whether their lands become protected areas.
"The whole notion of fortress
conservation has not been good for indigenous people," said Jennifer Tauli
Corpuz, of the non-profit Nia Tero, who is part of the indigenous caucus to the
CBD.
Conservation measures focused rigidly on
protecting trees and wildlife has in some cases seen indigenous people chased
off ancestral lands and deprived of traditional livelihoods.
'Emergency'
Global momentum has grown in the last two
years, with more than 90 world leaders signing up to a pledge to reverse nature
loss by 2030, stating that the interconnected threats of biodiversity loss and
climate change are a "planetary emergency".
Despite this, the Geneva talks are expected
to draw to a close on Tuesday without having fully discussed the 30-percent
target.
A representative from a northern hemisphere
delegation told AFP that both
South Africa and China, which holds the COP15
presidency, remain nervous about the goal.
"I am optimistic but there is a long
way to go," the delegate said.
One breakthrough was the decision by India
to throw its support behind the target.
"Conservation can only happen when you
provide species with some space to live," said Vinod Mathur, who heads
India's National Biodiversity Authority.
"We are talking about wild animals, we
are not talking about a zoo."
While the 30-percent goal is global,
India is already looking at adding to the 22 percent of its territory already
conserved in national parks and tiger reserves.
But Mathur told AFP that expanding existing
protected areas would be "very difficult".
His department has spent months scouring the
country to find candidates to fit the more flexible criteria, including swathes
of land owned by private firms.
"It is changing the narrative," he
said.
'100 percent'
According to the most recent Protected
Planet report by the
UN Environment Program's World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the world met its target of protecting 17 percent of land habitats by
2020.
But it missed the 10-percent target for
marine and coastal areas, with just over seven percent conserved.
OECMs were formally defined in 2018 and are
"already making a huge difference" in the statistics, said Heather
Bingham, who leads the Protected Planet initiative.
But she said in the future the measurement
of success must go beyond just the size and location of conserved
territory.
"It's a big challenge. We have a good
sense of where protected areas are but we don't have a good sense of how well
they are performing," she said.
New monitoring methods could include
technology like satellites, as well as more robust local reporting over time.
Linda Krueger of
The Nature Conservancy said
there needs to be a "sniff test": "We have to see that
biodiversity is maintained and or improving."
And a 30-percent target must not distract
from efforts to nurture biodiversity everywhere, she said, from increasing
green spaces in cities to cutting pesticide use in agriculture.
"We need 100 percent really. We've
already lost too much nature," Krueger said.
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