press release
Experts: Nature Critical to G20’s Economic Recovery Plans
15 April 2020 — This week, finance ministers from the Group of Twenty (G20) and central bank governors are meeting to lay out an economic recovery plan to address the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on all countries, including the world’s poorest economies.
Experts assert nature should be a cornerstone of these plans—for the sake of people, health and economies—with those countries most dependent on nature tourism and protected areas at the most immediate risk from sudden spikes in illegal activities like wildlife poaching.
The experts argue investing in nature will reduce the risk of future pandemics—often rooted in the destruction of nature—and will help guard against the long-term costs of failing to address climate change and biodiversity loss.
Asserting that the rapid and devastating spread of the coronavirus is a tragedy with impacts on people, economies and societies that will last for years to come, the experts stressed that we must all do our part to support those who have been directly impacted by the pandemic and the hardships it’s caused.
The Campaign for Nature has issued the following statements:
Ambassador and Science Advisor to the Campaign for Nature, Dr. Zakri Abdul Hamid said:
“The coronavirus pandemic provides powerful proof that nature and people are more closely linked than most of us realized. When we protect nature, nature protects us. Research shows that better preserving biodiversity - the abundance of animals, plants, insects and microbes - can limit the spread of disease from animals to people. In addition to providing a safety net against illness, nature and protected areas also shield us from hunger and poverty, safeguard us from pollution and climate change, and supply us with medicine and leisure.”
Minister for Energy and the Environment of Costa Rica H.W. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez said:
“Costa Rica and a growing coalition of countries has called for at least 30 percent of the planet to be protected by 2030, a proposal that is more relevant and important now than ever before. As the world works to keep people safe and to help economies recover, all countries must consider the role that nature must play in helping achieve all of those fundamental goals.”
Project Leader for the Gonarezhou Conservation Project at Franklin Zoological Society, Hugo van der Westhuizen said:
“Now more than ever it is time that we reevaluate the value of nature. This reevaluation should include local communities and the price they are paying to live alongside a National Park, especially when the few benefits they are receiving through tourism dry up overnight. Conservation cannot be built and maintained only on tourism income or donor funding. COVID-19 is teaching us that we take nature for granted, together with clean water and air, and it seems we need to lose something before we realize its value. Nature can not be recreated once it is gone.”
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Available for interviews:
● Director of Campaign for Nature, Brian O’Donnell
● Ambassador and Science Advisor to the Campaign for Nature, Dr. Zakri Abdul Hamid
For Campaign for Nature interview requests and quotes, contact:
Kirsten Weymouth
National Geographic Society
+1 703.928.4995