This isn’t the transformative change that the scientific advisors on this treaty have called for. Human-induced loss of species needs to stop, and it needs to stop yesterday. So we can focus on species recovery.
A draft of the
UN's global framework to combat biodiversity
loss was released today, and it fails to call for a halt to species’
extinctions. The framework is being negotiated by parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity — 195 countries plus the European
Union — and the Convention is meant to function as the premier
international agreement on biodiversity conservation. The framework
has been under negotiation since 2019 and is supposed to guide the
parties in sustaining a healthy planet during the next decade and on
to 2050.
“We’re in the midst of a gut-wrenching biodiversity crisis and stand
to lose over a million species unless we change the way we do
business. Yet the framework meant to address this crisis globally
doesn’t even call for stopping extinctions,” said Tanya Sanerib,
international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
“This isn’t the transformative change that the scientific advisors
on this treaty have called for. Human-induced loss of species needs
to stop, and it needs to stop yesterday. So we can focus on species
recovery.”
The so-called “first draft” that was released today, following the
previous “zero draft,” requires greater ambition to protect
biodiversity. Additionally, as the zero draft was being negotiated
in 2020, the virus causing COVID-19 was quickly spreading globally.
But despite the
likely zoonotic origins of the
virus and its probable ties to wildlife trade, the only outcome was
a call for such trade to be “safe.” The version released today, in
the wake of COVID-19’s catastrophic global consequences, is a call
for trade, harvesting and use to be “safe for human health.”
“To truly minimize future pandemic risk, we need to rethink
commercial use of wildlife. That means eliminating trade and
exploitation that isn’t ecologically sustainable or legal, or poses
a risk to human or animal health,” said Sanerib. “With a COVID-like
event predicted every decade, we need decisive measures to reduce
wildlife consumption. Otherwise we’ll all be reliving 2020 again and
again.”
The framework includes a call to protect 30% of land and sea
globally. While the United States is not a party to the Convention
on Biological Diversity, in early 2021 President Joe Biden signed an
executive order — dubbed the
30x30 Initiative — directing the Interior Department to
conserve at least 30% of America’s lands and waters by the year
2030. But the executive order allows a lower standard for what
counts as conservation when compared to the framework. Only 12% of
U.S. land is currently protected.
The global framework is scheduled to be adopted in October at the
CBD meeting in Kunming, China. But first the parties will meet
virtually in August and September to negotiate the next draft.
“All hope rests on the upcoming virtual negotiations and whether
nations can collectively agree to increase ambition and address the
extinction crisis head-on,” said Sanerib. “Right now the road to
Kunming is blocked by a lack of ambition. But I have faith we can
overcome the obstacles and set our sights on saving life on Earth.”