This month, governments, civil society, Indigenous folks, corporations, and different organizations from all over the world will collect in Yerevan, Armenia for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17). Audubon is bringing its conservation management to this world stage, leveraging our scientific experience, on-the-ground expertise, and partnerships to assist advance the worldwide efforts to preserve biodiversity.
COP17 comes at a crucial second for nature. We all know that North America alone has lost 3 billion birds since 1970. Globally, BirdLife Worldwide’s State of the World’s Birds exhibits that 45% of migratory birds are in decline, and 11% of chicken species are threatened with extinction. And new research by WWF means that wildlife populations globally declined a mean of 73% between 1970 and 2022; this quantity rises to 95% within the Americas.
Recognizing this disaster, the world’s governments established the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and its 4 objectives and 23 targets, in 2022. These targets present a worldwide roadmap for safeguarding and restoring nature by 2030. Six are significantly related to Audubon’s work throughout the Americas and the conservation options we’re highlighting at COP17, from defending crucial habitat and restoring ecosystems to supporting Indigenous-led conservation and sustainable working lands. They embody:
- Goal 1: Plan and Handle all Areas to Cut back Biodiversity Loss
- Goal 2: Restore 30% of all Degraded Ecosystems
- Goal 3: Preserve 30% of Land, Water and Seas
- Goal 4: Halt Species Extinction, Shield Genetic Variety, and Handle Human-Wildlife Conflicts
- Goal 8: Reduce the Impacts of Local weather Change on Biodiversity and Construct Resilience
- Goal 10: Improve Biodiversity and Sustainability in Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Forestry
At COP17, the world is coming collectively in a Global Review of progress on the GBF and its 2030 targets. The findings will underscore a crucial problem: the world just isn’t on observe to satisfy these objectives and targets. Accelerated motion is required to guard and restore biodiversity, prosper with nature, share advantages pretty, and make investments and collaborate in a approach that helps nature.
Negotiations at COP17 will deal with accelerated implementation and embody matters resembling: biodiversity funding; higher aligning efforts to satisfy biodiversity, local weather, and land restoration objectives; and establishing a brand new physique on Indigenous Peoples and native communities. Exterior the negotiations, a serious focus can be on the Forests Roadmap, which contributes to speed up world efforts by governments, corporations, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society organizations to halt deforestation and forest degradation, whereas restoring ecosystems at scale.
Drawing on our work throughout the Americas, during the last six months Audubon has revealed a sequence of Policy Briefs outlining sensible approaches to speed up progress in direction of the goal of conserving 30 % of the world’s lands, inland waters, and seas by 2030, generally known as “30×30”.
Audubon on the Floor at COP17
At COP17, Audubon will advance these options by means of a series of events that showcase our conservation experience and management and show how our work contributes to key GBF targets:
- Advancing Indigenous-led Conservation: Audubon is internet hosting an occasion targeted on Indigenous-led conservation areas, highlighting the crucial position these areas can play in reaching 30×30 objectives (Goal 3), managing areas to scale back biodiversity loss (Goal 1), halting species extinction (Goal 4), and minimizing the impacts of local weather change on biodiversity (Goal 8).
- Elevating Conservation on Working Lands: Audubon is main a dialogue inspecting how conservation on working lands helps sustainable agriculture and land administration (Goal 10), whereas additionally serving to meet the 30×30 aim (Goal 3) as “different efficient area-based conservation measures.”
- Restoring Ecosystems at Scale: Audubon is main a session exploring classes discovered from large-scale restoration within the Gulf following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the way these experiences can inform efforts to revive degraded lands (Goal 2), plan and handle areas to scale back biodiversity loss (Goal 1), and construct local weather resilience (Goal 8).
- Scaling Conservation Throughout the Americas: Alongside our companions, Audubon will showcase Conserva Aves, a hemispheric initiative advancing domestically led conservation throughout Latin America. By defending crucial habitats, strengthening ecological connectivity, and mobilizing sources for conservation, the initiative contributes to improved conservation planning (Goal 1, the 30×30 aim (Goal 3), species safety (Goal 4), and local weather resilience (Goal 8), translating world commitments into tangible conservation motion.
- Shaping World Forests Conservation Efforts: Audubon is talking on a panel targeted on the Forests Roadmap, discussing how success in halting deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, together with restoring ecosystems, would make main contributions to all of the targets listed above.
Popping out of COP17, Audubon will work to show new selections, pledges, applications and mechanisms into significant conservation motion on the bottom all through the Americas. The urgency has by no means been larger. To halt biodiversity loss worldwide and strengthen our communities and economies, we should defend and restore the pure techniques on which birds and other people rely. Renewed dedication popping out of COP17 might be the turning level that renews world ambition, accelerates motion, and builds momentum.
