A window into the COP 15 Biodiversity Summit

As the abundance of animal populations plummets globally, 19,000 representatives from 195 countries (but not the United States or Vatican City) gathered in Montreal from December 5-19 for the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties #15 (COP 15), to find practical solutions to the world’s catastrophic biodiversity crisis. In a similar approach taken by the 2015 Paris Accord on climate change, outcomes of the finalized Biodiversity Framework aim to stem biodiversity loss by 30% by 2030. 

Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s representative, J. Robert Gardiner, has been advocating for our conservation principles, approaches, and ethics in Montreal at COP 15. Raincoast’s focus at COP 15 has extended beyond our usual BC-based conservation focus to advance ways to implement these world-wide biodiversity targets. 

The Global Biodiversity Framework

The UN’s landmark 2019 Report on the State of Global Biodiversity found that human impacts have already eliminated half of the world’s natural ecosystems. The biomass of wild animals has been reduced by 82%. One million animals and plant species are at risk of extinction.

Exponential growth of the world’s population has enabled it to increase from two billion in 1928 to eight billion humans by 2020, all competing to harvest our planet’s ecosystems and life forms. We are “eroding the very foundation of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide” according to the UN report.

The 2022 Living Planet Index (produced by the Zoological Society of London) reveals a 69% decline in the size of 38,427 studied vertebrate populations since 1970. These vertebrates represent mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish across 5,230 species. 4.7 million hectares (over 10 million acres) of forests are lost each year. Approximately 50% of the global economy is dependent on the health of the natural world. 

COP 15’s Global Biodiversity Framework addresses 23 biodiversity targets and 4 goals – particularly the commitment to protect at least 30% of land and water around the globe by 2030. This doubles the current global average of 15%. 195 countries have now supported this impressive “30 by 30” goal.

The biodiversity targets

The 23 targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework are grouped into three categories:

• Targets 1-8: Reduce threats to biodiversity.
• Targets 9-13: Meet people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing.
• Targets 14-21: Tools and solutions for implementation and mainstreaming.

Some particular targets include:

• Off-set billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions by nature-based approaches such as conserving biodiversity-rich rainforests and the ocean,
• Reduce pollution from harmful pesticides and fertilizers by half, and reduce over-consumption and waste products,
• Protect habitats by ambitious sustainable conservation practices,
• Restore 20% of degraded ecosystems, 
• Stop the introduction and spread of invasive species,
• Eliminate the discharge of plastic waste,
• Incorporate Indigenous leadership, Traditional Knowledge and conservation efforts,
• Improve resource data banks, management and policies, 
• Reduce subsidies for industries that contribute to biodiversity loss (including deforestation, agriculture, mining, oil extraction, etc.),
• Assert financing mechanisms, economic measures, business and private investment,
• Promote human rights, womens’ rights, fairness and equity initiatives,
• Promote local community benefits derived from local products, 
• Share information and digital genetic data with local communities.
• Enhance sustainable land use planning to identify and implement measures.

Biodiverse forests, the ocean, and healthy ecosystems create our oxygen and sequester carbon, while supporting resilience in plants, animals, and environments that are threatened by a warming planet. This warming rate is already reaching to exceed the hoped 1.5°C limit on warming. Protected and restored biodiversity may account for 30% of climate change rectifications.

Progress at this COP 15 Biodiversity Conference turned out to be more ambitious than many expected. Every government now has received the message and the almost-unanimous and ambitious support by 194 countries for 30 by 30 is a monumental accomplishment in the overall mission to hold and reverse nature’s losses. This represents a commitment to double-land protection and triple ocean protection.

Urgent action is needed

Globally, we are amid the human-caused sixth mass extinction event of life on Earth. 195 participating countries will have only eight years to meet the targets to halt biodiversity loss if we are to achieve the UN’s vision for “living in harmony with nature” by 2030. 50% protection of biodiverse areas by 2050 will then follow as a focus.

To coordinate a global response to the loss of Earth’s ecosystems and species, a group of developing nations called for western nations to fund at least $100 billion annually, rising to $700 billion per year by 2030. $200 Billion was committed at COP 15, and various funding mechanisms are being explored, and overwhelmingly supported (such as the Global Biodiversity Fund), recognizing that wealthy nations have plundered developing nations’ natural realms to supply the north’s demand for commodities, without sharing the benefits with the communities that provided the materials. 

The rights and knowledge of Indigenous peoples and local communities have been repeatedly acknowledged, as stewards of the land that is home to around 80% of Earth’s remaining biodiversity. Conservation efforts cannot succeed without their leadership. 

The many Ministers of the Environment attending COP 15 have grasped the urgency of the Earth’s current crisis and their essential responsibility to enact policies, legislation, and required financing, in combination with contributions and initiatives by affected industries. The realms of agriculture, forestry, fishing, intellectual property, pollution, and pesticides (to name a few) will necessarily face their own evolutions.

The hard part will come down to implementing the targets. Environmental organizations will need to monitor and keep the pressure on each of their governments to see national implementations of this vision to be mobilized and fulfilled in true, measurable, protective mechanisms. Some goals still need to be clarified and achieved by viable processes, subject to effective monitoring and tracking. Financing mechanisms will be the key to enabling protective measures in many developing countries. Some remaining concerns will need to be implemented at the next COP 16 in 2024 in Turkiye, and by each nation.

Help us encourage Minister Stephen Guilbeault

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was finalized under the co-leadership of China’s Presidency of COP 15 and Canada’s hosting efforts to persuade countless Ministers of Environment to get on board. It has been an impressive accomplishment personally for Stephen Guilbeault. 

We encourage you to contact Stephen Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change at stephen [dot] guilbeault [at] parl [dot] gov [dot] ca, calling on him to mobilize resources and expedite implementation in Canada of the global deal to protect 30% of the Earth’s lands, waters, coastal regimes, and ocean by 2030. Canada announced funding at COP 15 of $800 million over five years to fund Indigenous-led conservation programs. 

Canada is also developing an Indigenous-led local conservation model supported by federal funding to Indigenous communities. Canada has also announced a significant program to eliminate use of most non-recyclable plastics within the next year or two. But Canada needs to do more. We lack a biodiversity strategy and are lagging to protect or recover the climbing numbers of species at risk. Currently, Canada protects only 13% of its lands and fresh water, and 13.9% of its marine territory. Minister Guibeault has promised to ramp up to 25% by 2025, and 30% by 2030. That will be a phenomenal, but necessary accomplishment.

Each of Canada’s provinces, territories, and cities must urgently adopt policies and legislation to effectively implement protections for Canada’s biodiversity portfolio. Sustainable forestry, agriculture, mineral extraction, and fishing practices, reduced use of harmful pesticides, tackling of invasive species, and elimination of harmful government subsidies must occur – promptly.

Bob is representing the Raincoast Conservation Foundation at COP 15.

You can help

Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.

We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.