Protect 30% of the planet, a crucial COP15 biodiversity target

Excessive

“The 30% is a minimum, not a ceiling”, say the scientific community and environmentalists, very concerned about seeing a less ambitious percentage in the final agreement, while 17% of land and 8% of oceans are already protected.

However, South Africa, followed by Saudi Arabia, defended a general target of 20% in the negotiations. Other countries, such as China, Japan or South Korea, are in favor of 30% for land, but propose 20% for the sea by 2030.

In order not to penalize very dense countries or countries with little coastline, the target will probably be global.

This would help some countries to take on more of the effort, especially if they are home to areas very rich in biodiversity or decisive in combating global warmingLike Amazon, for example.

Insufficient

“We would already be above 30% of conservation on the planet if our governments recognized the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities over their territories”, lamented Oscar Soria, campaign director at Avaaz, which defends a target of 50%, along with other NGOs, such as the Wild Foundation and One Earth.

In fact, indigenous peoples, who represent 6% of the world's population, are important actors in the Montreal negotiations.

“We are here to send the message that we cannot achieve ambitious conservation goals without a full consideration of our rights,” said Jennifer Corpuz, lawyer and member of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (FIIB).

With conditions

Many NGOs say they will accept a 30% target if certain criteria are met, such as including only “ecologically significant” zones in protected areas and ensuring effective protection measures.

Others call for a percentage of “strongly or totally” protected areas, with little or no developed human activity.

But for now, most of these qualitative criteria are on hold in the draft agreement.

The defense of biodiversity through spatial planning, reducing the use of pesticides or restoring degraded soils are also important objectives of the agreement negotiated in Montreal.

(with AFP)

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