December 2022 saw the signing of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an international agreement on tackling biodiversity loss, at the COP15 meeting of parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The framework sets out four goals for 2050, relating to the maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems, achieving sustainable development, fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and securing equitable access for all framework parties to the financial and other resources needed to implement the framework.
The framework also sets out 23 targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030, covering a range of actions to reduce threats to biodiversity, meet people’s needs sustainably, and provide tools and solutions to implement the framework.
Targets that may be of particular interest to TABLE readers include:
- Target 5, on the sustainable harvest of wild species.
- Target 7 on reducing risks from pollution, including reducing nutrient loss to the environment by at least half and reducing risk from pesticides by at least half, for example by using integrated pest management, while accounting for food security.
- Target 10 on the sustainable management of areas under agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry, for example by using approaches such as sustainable intensification and agroecology.
- Target 16 on supporting people in making sustainable consumption choices such as halving global food waste and significantly reducing overconsumption.
The full text of the framework can be accessed here or here (PDF link).
Media coverage includes:
- The Guardian: Cop15: historic deal struck to halt biodiversity loss by 2030
- Carbon Brief: COP15: Key outcomes agreed at the UN biodiversity conference in Montreal
- UNEP: COP15 ends with landmark biodiversity agreement
- Reuters: Rainforest-rich nations ensure COP15 deal on nature sticks
Read more here. See also the TABLE Rewilding and its implications for agriculture.
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