The private sector has continued to come together to mobilize on the environmental conservation front — with a
host of individual company commitments to care for and restore
biodiversity,
as well as efforts across industries to quantify the economic benefits of
healthy
ecosystems, as well as our risks associated with our natural capital use;
to establish systemwide fixes to our global plastic pollution
problem;
and to reliably account for GHG impacts from land and land-use
change
to prevent deforestation and promote soil restoration, to name a few — but
governments must also pull their weight in order for us to maintain a livable
planet.
According to the group, nations around the world must commit to protect at least half of the Earth to avoid massive
biodiversity loss and the worst effects of dangerous climate change, according
to a new scientific paper entitled A Global Deal for Nature: Guiding
Principles,
Milestones, and
Targets,
published by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science in Science Advances.
The paper lays out a science-driven plan1 to save the diversity and abundance of
life on Earth by protecting natural
ecosystems
that play a critical function in storing carbon, producing freshwater, and
providing food security — the enabling conditions required for humanity to
thrive.
The proposed GDN targets 30 percent of Earth to be formally protected no later
than 2030 under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, with
approximately 20 percent in additional lands designated as Climate
Stabilization Areas (CSAs)2, to help the world stay below the recommended
target of a 1.5°C rise in average global temperature and to preserve
biodiversity.
“The science is now clear. We must act with boldness and vision if we are to
prevent the worsening impacts of climate change – from sea level rise and
extreme flooding to prolonged drought, cataclysmic fire events, and collapsing
food systems,” said Karl Burkart, Director of Media, Science and Technology
at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. “Ultimately, we will stay below the
1.5˚C threshold because we must. And the ‘Global Deal for Nature’ is a big part
of how we do it.”
Building on a landmark
study from 2017 by many
of the same scientists, the new paper provides the rationale for a GDN agreement
between nations to protect half of the Earth — adding analysis of existing
conservation strategies and a clear pathway to achieving the goal through, for
example, a stronger focus on the rights of indigenous communities to steward
their lands for effective conservation.
This campaign, being spearheaded by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation’s One
Earth initiative, aims to usher in a new era of
ambitious conservation in which international institutions, governments and
people work together to save nature — from supporting communal conservancies
in Namibia’s Damaraland, home to wild lions and elephant herds; to
indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, who conserve key ecosystems
and safe havens for jaguars and rare primates; to the last home of the orangutan
in indigenous reserves in Borneo.
Gregorio Mirabal, president
of COICA (Coordinator
of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin), said: “Science is
telling us something our traditional knowledge has been warning of for decades:
The Earth is dying. We urgently need a Global Deal for Nature to restore half of
the natural world as soon as possible and, as guardians of 80 percent of the
planet’s biodiversity, indigenous peoples must play a central role in that pact.
Indigenous communities truly understand what it means to live in harmony with
nature — now governments need to recognize that our ancestral knowledge will be
key to ensuring that we all have a future on this Earth.”
Based on the GDN paper, a petition has
now been launched by One Earth and leading nongovernmental and indigenous
organizations, asking the public to support the most comprehensive conservation
targets yet to save biodiversity, avert a climate crisis and ensure a future for
humanity.
“The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat are all dependent on
other forms of life. We need to give them more space so that the natural world
can continue providing for us,” said Enric Sala, Explorer-in-Residence
at National Geographic. “If we don’t keep hold of the intact nature we still
have, it will be impossible to achieve the Paris climate goals, or any of the
Sustainable Development Goals on which the future of humanity depends.”
Notes:
-
Approximately half of Earth’s terrestrial surface is currently in a natural
condition and capable of supporting functioning ecosystems. The One
Earth Climate Model (LDF 1.5°C Scenario)
published by Springer Nature in early 2019, Achieving the Paris Climate
Agreement Goals, shows that
we can only meet the target of remaining below 1.5°C in the average global
temperature rise by ending the conversion of forests and other natural lands
by 2030 — effectively placing half of the Earth’s lands under permanent
protection. The model also requires a rapid transition to 100 percent
renewables by 2050, alongside a large-scale restoration effort to achieve a
strong likelihood of staying below 1.5˚C by 2075.
-
A key GDN milestone is to fully protect 30 percent of the terrestrial realm
by 2030, but stopping there would prove inadequate to meet the Paris Accord
goals. To this end, the GDN introduces the concept of Climate Stabilization
Areas (CSAs) — areas that are currently intact but largely outside of the
traditional protected area system. Resources are needed to secure and manage
these lands to store carbon. Supporting the management of these carbon
storehouses will also yield tremendous benefits for biodiversity, from large
mammals migrating across the tundra to coral reefs and their inhabitants
affected by ocean acidification as a result of global warming. The efforts of
local human communities and especially indigenous communities will be essential
for protecting and managing CSAs. Funds to proactively protect CSAs from
catastrophic wildfires, other natural disasters, and industrial resource
extraction will be vital.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Apr 23, 2019 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST