Environment ministers agree new UN biodiversity strategy

As the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) closed on Friday, representatives of almost 200 nations agreed a new strategy “to meet the unprecedented
challenges of the continued loss of biodiversity compounded by climate change”.

The agreement includes:

• The Aichi Target
  Under the new 10-year strategic plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity signatories will draw up national biodiversity plans to meet 20 headline targets under five strategic goals:
  • addressing the underlying causes of biodiversity loss;
  • reducing the pressures on biodiversity;
  • safeguarding biodiversity at all levels;
  • enhancing the benefits provided by biodiversity;
  • providing for capacity-building.

  Targets include at least halving the rate of loss of natural habitats, restoring at least 15% of degraded areas, and expanding protected areas to 17% of the world’s land and 10% of marine areas.

• The Nagoya Protocol
  The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization creates a framework to balance access to the genetic resources of developing countries with an equitable sharing of the benefits.

Parties at the conference also endorsed a plan of action for cities and biodiversity, announced financial resources to support the agreement, and agreed to to identify further necessary finance in time for the 11th Conference of the Parties in India in 2012.

Securing the planet’s variety of life

Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who led the UK delegation, welcomed the agreement:

“These have been long and hard negotiations, but we have successfully achieved a new global plan to help protect our natural environment. We have also agreed an historic protocol which has been 18 years in the making, establishing a regime where developing countries will allow access to their genetic and natural resources in return for a share of the benefits for their use.

“The new agreement states we will take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of habitats and species in order to ensure that by 2020 our natural environment is resilient and can continue to provide the essential services that we would otherwise take for granted. This will secure the planet’s variety of life, our well being and help eradicate poverty.”

Key elements of the agreement will be incorporated into Defra’s Natural Environment White Paper, to be published in Spring 2011.

Linking climate change, global poverty and biodiversity

The conference acknowledged the need to better integrate the biodiversity agenda with climate change and land degradation. The Nagoya protocol is intended to ensure that developing nations enjoy a fair share of the benefits of genetic resources, while defining adequate development funding is a priority for further negotiation.

Earlier in the conference, Caroline Spelman announced £100 million of UK Government funding for international forestry projects benefiting biodiversity, demonstrating the potential for international climate finance to deliver additional benefits:

“We have also secured an agreement to link climate change, global poverty and biodiversity together in protecting the world’s forests, which is essential if we are to achieve our aims in these areas. This was a key objective for the UK and this week I announced £100 million specifically to fund biodiversity projects in forest regions.”

International cooperation for biodiversity

Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, welcomed the Nagoya agreement as an example of nations successfully finding common ground to tackle a global problem:

“This is a day to celebrate in terms of a new and innovative response to the alarming loss of biodiversity and ecosystems. It is an important moment for the United Nations and the ability of countries to put aside the narrow differences that all too often divide in favour of the broader, shared issues that can united peoples and nations.”