UN officials have called on everyone to be part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, to echo the theme of the 2024 edition of International Day for Biological Diversity.
MONTREAL, Canada, May 21 (Xinhua) -- UN officials, among other high-level representatives, have called on everyone to be part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, also known as the Biodiversity Plan, to echo the theme of the 2024 edition of International Day for Biological Diversity.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his statement that decimating biodiversity damages sustainable development today and will create a dangerous and uncertain tomorrow.
"The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework offers a pathway to reverse loss and restore biodiversity -- while creating jobs, building resilience, and spurring sustainable development," Guterres said.
"Governments must lead," he said. "But as this year's International Day for Biological Diversity reminds us, we are all 'Part of the Plan' -- we all have a role to play. Indigenous Peoples, business, financial institutions, local and regional authorities, civil society, women, young people, and academia must work together to value, protect and restore biodiversity in a way that benefits everyone."
Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program Inger Andersen highlighted the importance of finance.
"To implement the 23 targets of the Biodiversity Plan, finance will be central. Today 7 trillion U.S. dollars are invested every year in activities that actually harm nature meanwhile support for the conservation and sustainable use of nature is less than the 200 billion U.S. dollars each year that the plan calls for," said Andersen.
"We must repurpose harmful subsidies in a way that protects the poor and the vulnerable and we have to align public and private finance with nature and we must increase transfer between developed and developing countries to the 20 billion U.S. dollars by next year that we promised," she said.
David Cooper, acting executive secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said the Biodiversity Plan is humanity's best chance to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and live in harmony with nature.
"For the Plan to work, however, we need a whole-of-society approach that includes everyone," Cooper said. "Through informed purchasing decisions, citizens can relieve the pressure exerted on biodiversity, one shopping cart at a time; Through their votes and engagement in the political process, citizens can prompt politicians to embrace the Biodiversity Plan as a domestic policy priority."
According to Cooper, governments are currently working to revise their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to ensure they are aligned with the Plan. Governments are expected to present their NBSAPs at the next meeting of the Parties to the Convention, COP 16, in Cali, Colombia, which will be held under the theme "Peace with nature."
The International Day for Biodiversity, which falls on May 22, is the perfect opportunity to keep momentum going in order to protect and restore nature, to prosper with nature, to share benefits fairly, and to invest and collaborate for nature, according to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
On Dec. 19, 2023, the one-year anniversary of the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the Secretariat launched "The Biodiversity Plan" campaign aiming to communicate and promote the 4 Goals and the 23 targets of the framework to the world. ■
