UN Biodiversity conference ends with landmark agreement

Tue, January 10, 2023 

There was no small sense of relief last month when the two-week United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity ended.

It wasn’t just because it was around 3:30 a.m. in Montreal on Dec. 19 when the event (known more commonly as COP15) concluded. The relief was more jubilant because it concluded with a hard-won, historic agreement on biodiversity.

“I would have thought I was at the arrival of the Beatles in North America,” said Jay Ritchlin, director general of the British Columbia and Western region of the David Suzuki Foundation.

“You would not believe the joy, the exuberance and the happiness that was expressed when that thing passed. The whole room burst out in a standing ovation and cheers went up.”

Ritchlin was one of the approximately 10,000 delegates from around the world in attendance when the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was approved. The landmark agreement contained four global goals for 2050 and 23 targets to counter biodiversity loss by 2030.

One of the big reasons for that exuberance was because almost every country on the planet signed on with a pledge to designate at least 30 per cent of all land and ocean areas as protected areas by 2030.

That target, more commonly referred to as 30 by 30, places special importance on areas that have particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions, in particular ones that are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. Canada also pledged to designate 25 per cent of all land and ocean as protected areas by 2025, or 25 by 25 for short.

Dr. Jodi Hilty, president and chief scientist of the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative (Y2Y), highlighted the importance that connectivity plays a major role, appearing four times in the agreement.

“That's a really important piece because in most cases, our protected areas are never going to be big enough to sustain wide-ranging species especially, and address climate change,” she said. “They’re talking about making sure that our protected areas are connected and actually acting as a functional ecological network, which is so, so, so important.”

Three years ago, Y2Y worked with the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Connectivity Specialist group to develop the global guidelines for ecological corridors and ecological networks as part of the need for large landscape conservation.

Y2Y sponsored a side event on ecological corridors at COP15, the result of which is that a number of different governments, including Canada now have formalized national ecological corridor programs to support the conservation of ecological corridors in key areas across the country.

“It's all about making sure for Y2Y that this region actually stays connected. That's what's going to maintain the biodiversity in this region for the long term,” Hilty said.

For Tara Russell, program director with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the concept of connectivity is of even greater relevance in terms of how efforts are made toward achieving the agreement’s objectives. She confirmed that many people see those goals and targets as the “lowest common denominator of what we need for nature.”

Considering the level of difficulty in getting all of those countries to work together and create such a wide-reaching agreement, it’s crucial for a level of collaboration from governments to the populace in general.

“For this to be actually successful in halting and reversing biodiversity loss and achieving those goals, we're going to have to incorporate them into everything we do,” Russell said. “That's going to require public buy-in and political will and recognition across all levels of government.”

Ritchlin said that he remains optimistic that it’s possible, especially because of the determination shown by participants at the conference. At one point, it looked like COP15 was going to end up with a watered-down agreement that wouldn’t carry any weight to it.

“I think if the enthusiasm that I saw from a lot of the government delegations can carry forward, then we've got some hope for sure,” he said.

Part of the hopefulness that Russell feels comes from the presence of and focus on leadership of Indigenous peoples and local communities in solving a worldwide biodiversity crisis.

“It's really clear throughout that respecting and recognizing those rights should be at the core of all the actions to conserve biodiversity,” she said.

Hilty confirmed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian government really shined on its leadership throughout the conference and on the importance of Indigenous participation in biodiversity loss.

“In the first two days, Trudeau made significant commitments to international conservation, significant commitments to reversing and halting biodiversity loss 30 by 30, 25 by 25, all those things, but also significant financial commitments to Indigenous-led conservation,” she said.

While 2025 and 2030 are not so far into the future, Hilty said that setting targets like those add much to the urgency of the matter.

“I think the importance of having such an ambitious set of targets for biodiversity conservation is it signals two things: it signals world awareness that we really do have to take care of nature for nature itself but also for the survival of humanity.”

Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Jasper Fitzhugh