São Paulo – The United Nations Biodiversity Conference COP15 closed in Montreal, Canada, with the signing of a historic deal this Monday (19). The agreement intends to protect nature by preventing the destruction of biodiversity and its natural resources and offering financial aid to avoid species extinction.
The agreement was signed between over 190 States at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 15). The conservation of 30% of the planet’s natural area by 2030 and the clearance of USD 30 billion for preserving biomes in developing countries were settled upon.
According to the UN, the text of the peace pact with nature, also called the Kunming-Montreal Agreement, includes 23 urgent action goals and four long-term goals to protect the land, oceans, and species from pollution, degradation, and the climate crisis. Halting biodiversity loss, how this will be funded, and how its progress will be monitored and reported are among the big resolutions.
The text provides for the release of USD 200 billion a year for biodiversity initiatives in the public and private sectors and safeguards to indigenous peoples, proposing the restoration of 30% of degraded land and the halving of the use of pesticides.
Other points in the text include: Maintaining, improving, and restoring ecosystems, including halting species extinction and maintaining genetic diversity; ‘Sustainable use’ of biodiversity, ensuring species and habitats can continue to provide to humanity such as food and clean water; ensuring the benefits of nature’s resources, such as herbal medicine, are shared fairly and equally, and the rights of indigenous peoples are protected; investing and putting resources into biodiversity and ensuring money and conservation efforts are employed where they are needed.
Scientists warned with deforestation at unprecedented rates and oceans under pressure from pollution; humans are pushing Earth beyond safe limits.
According to the UN Development Program (UNDP), the global community has come together and agreed on an ambitious path. To carry this vision forward, the “UNDP Nature Pledge” initiative; the agency, together with the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and other partners, is committed to the transformations to turn the tide of nature’s crisis. Now, over 140 countries will be supported.
For the UNDP, the agreement is “a historical moment of recognition of truth and a moment that, if responded to with the planned actions, can set the course for a prosperous future on a healthy planet, which leaves no one behind.”
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
