The stakes are high at the 2022 Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), underway now in Montréal. On the table is a new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). A strong GBF could put the world on a path to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and help to tackle the intertwined climate, inequality and human rights crises. However, Indigenous and other land rights-holders and civil society groups are raising the alarm about corporations’ efforts to water down ambitions and sideline talks with empty jargon, dubious claims, junk reporting and dangerous efforts to further commodify nature.
Around one million plant and animal species face extinction, some within decades. Lands, forests and waters are being destroyed or degraded at an alarming rate. Biodiversity loss is limiting our resilience and capacity to adapt to climate change. The loss of bees and other pollinators is threatening our food supply and human encroachment on ecosystems is leaving us more exposed to the zoonotic diseases that could cause future pandemics. Read: Every whale is worth $2 million? Why it’s time to add the value of nature to GDP And: Cookies and wet markets: Here’s where coronavirus and climate change collide The world’s leading biodiversity scientists maintain that the only way to end the crisis is through bold, transformative change — by tackling the key drivers of deforestation, including deforestation
LB00,
-1.19%,
the loss and fragmentation of habitats, industrial livestock
LC00,
+0.24%
and agriculture production, pollution, the introduction of alien species, as well as addressing power inequalities, injustice, and by developing inclusive decision-making, including valuing those who have best cared for nature, such as Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Shamefully, despite playing a significant role in drafting the original Convention on Biological Diversity in the early nineties, the U.S. …