In 2010, politicians pledged to halt the devastation of Earth’s wildlife. Since then, no progress has been made.
At that time, wild animal populations were declining by about 2.5 percent a year on average as habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, climate change and disease ravaged habitats and lives. Such losses must end within a decade, it was agreed.
It has been 12 years, and here we are, ready for COP15 to be held in Montreal, Canada. (COP15 stands for the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a two-week summit that will take place from December 7-19, 2022).
One of the first things that delegates to the conference will do is judge what progress has been made in the past 12 years. “It will be an easy assessment to make,” said Andrew Terry, the director of conservation at ZSL, the Zoological Society of London, reports The Guardian.
“Absolutely no progress has been made. Populations have continued to decline at a rate of around 2.5% a year. We haven’t slowed the destruction in the slightest. Our planet’s biodiversity is now in desperate peril as a result.”
At COP10 in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, governments set out to meet the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets by 2020, including that natural habitat loss would be halved and plans for sustainable consumption and production would be implemented. However, nothing was done.
The aim of COP15 is to adopt a globally agreed upon plan – the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework – for living in harmony with nature. The vision has always been that by 2050, biodiversity would be valued, restored and conserved.
The framework includes 21 targets for 2030, among them being:
- The conservung of at least 30 percent of land and sea areas globally.
- A 50 percent greater reduction in the rate of introduction of invasive alien species.
- Reducing nutrients lost to the environment by at least half, and pesticides by at least two thirds, and eliminating the discharge of plastic waste
- A $200 billion increase in international financial flows from all sources to developing countries.
Prospects of success look grim, however – a point emphasised last month in the WWF’s Living Planet report 2022, which highlighted some of the starkest effects humans have had on life on Earth.
Tanya Steele, the chief executive of WWF UK, claims that while there has been no action on biodiversity, world leaders have been absent when it comes to any action.
“Presidents and prime ministers flocked to the climate summit in Egypt this month. I doubt if many will turn up in Montreal. Biodiversity is not considered to be that important. Yet it underpins the food we eat and the air we breathe and protects us from pollution, flooding and climate breakdown.”
Canada not meeting its biodiversity goals
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vows his government will be able to surpass targets to conserve 25 percent of lands and oceans by 2025, and 30 percent by 2030, according to CBC Canada.
Since 1978 species in Canada considered at risk — flora and fauna — have steadily increased. A total of 841 species are designated at risk by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The list ranges from the timber rattlesnakes, no longer found in the wild in Canada, to the endangered beluga whales of the St. Lawrence Estuary.
And while Trudeau is confident that Canada will meet its biodiversity conservation goals, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s own performance indicators, the number of at-risk species on the road to recovery hasn’t improved since 2014 — hovering at 42 percent.
That means Canada is on track to miss yet another biodiversity goal — achieving progress toward the recovery of 60 percent of species at risk by 2025.
