In the same way that the advance of climate change is fought , it is no less important to put on the table the importance of saving biodiversity . In parallel to the global climate meetings organized by the UN, a series of meetings have been held for more than a decade to advance the difficult task of saving the planet while preserving its biodiversity .
- A galloping decline
- Alliance for biodiversity
- Conclusions
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Index
A galloping decline
While advancing at a snail’s pace, biodiversity plummets without stopping. Not surprisingly, we find ourselves in an unfavorable context. Science continues to warn us of the tremendous increase in the rate of extinction of species on the planet.
Species are becoming extinct in greater numbers and also faster, which means a reduction of species up to a thousand times greater than up to now. A global phenomenon that, despite being tremendously negative, could be halted if the necessary measures were taken urgently.
Interestingly, a similar situation to the one we are faced with with climate change. All is not lost, although it will be in the near future if you do not react well and on time. The Cancun meeting aims to advance in this regard.
The alarming findings of the latest report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) provided a timely backdrop to the event. Under the title “Living Planet”, it is claimed that more than half of vertebrates have disappeared in the last forty years.
Alliance for biodiversity
If no action is taken, the same study predicts that about two-thirds will disappear by 2020. In order to try to prevent something like this from happening, the CBD and WWF International will collaborate closely.
They will do so thanks to the signing of an agreement between the environmental entity and the CBD Secretariat, signed to enhance the Aichi 1 (ABT1) goal and achieve greater awareness, as well as its compliance by 2020.
In particular, it is intended that people understand the tremendous value of biodiversity and take the necessary measures and actions so that the use of the environment is sustainable.
To achieve this, work will be done on the implementation of the CBD’s Global Communication Strategy together with the Parties to the Convention, partners and the broader conservation community.
An agreement signed in a ceremony held in the framework of the COP13 on biodiversity, where representatives of the CBD participants put on the table their respective contributions to the aforementioned communication strategy .
Let us recall here the summary of goal 1 of Aichi, since it summarizes the objective pursued with this agreement:
Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity into all areas government and society
To know the origin of this summit we have to go back to the celebration of the Earth Summit that Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) hosted in 1992. It arose, specifically, from one of the three UN conventions adopted that year .
The other two referred to climate change and the fight against desertification, all of them interrelated issues, although with enough importance to deal with them separately.
Since its first summit, much progress has been made in the number of members and its relevance, since practically all countries participate, except the United States.
The fact that the United States only participates as a mere observer is a big problem to advance globally, there is no doubt, but this does not mean that its objectives are less ambitious. Be that as it may, it must move on, with or without the great USA.
The challenge, their willingness to end the decline in biodiversity on the planet, may seem utopian, but given the dramatic situation, it is the only possible one.
Conclusions
The thirteenth edition of this biannual event is being held in Cancun, Mexico, from December 4-17. Officially, it is called the meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and it reviews the progress in the implementation of the most important commitments of the nearly 200 participating countries.
Among other issues, the “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020″ is being studied , as well as the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, agreed in 2010. Basically, it is a set of 20 targets that are included in said Plan.
In the meeting, therefore, there is a kind of review of achievements and challenges still unfulfilled by the 196 participating countries in objectives as important for the preservation of biodiversity as the halting of the loss of biodiversity in wildlife. , land and sea. Taking into account that its decline is a capital issue, no less serious than the advance of climate change, how unnoticed this meeting happens is actually symptomatic. Although it is also true that media attention to climate change is a recent issue.
In other words, for years climate change did not have the media coverage of today, in the same way that a score of climate meetings had to happen to reach an agreement, finally reached at COP21, held in the French capital last year. His great achievement, reaching a historic global agreement to combat climate change.
Regarding biodiversity, despite its weaknesses and implementation problems, there is a much longer road to travel to reach a similar goal.
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