MEDIA STATEMENT
New Report Points to Promise of Protecting 30X30
WASHINGTON, DC (19 May 2021) — Today, the United Nations and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) launched a final report card on progress towards Aichi Target 11 – the global 10-year target on protected and conserved areas that expired in 2020.
The report finds that the size of protected areas has grown significantly, with the 17% target for land-based conservation and the 10% goal for ocean conservation nearly met. This progress demonstrates the ability of protected area targets to help drive action from countries around the world, and the report authors make it clear that more protections are needed moving forward in order to help address the crisis of global biodiversity loss. They note that there are still many areas important for biodiversity and ecosystem services that lack protection, and they highlight that the entire network of protected and conserved areas must be more effectively managed.
These recommendations are in line with the next 10-year biodiversity plan that countries are currently negotiating through the UN Convention of Biological Diversity. The current draft has proposed a new target of protecting at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030, focusing on the areas most important for biodiversity.
Among the report’s findings:
Since 2010, countries have added protected areas covering almost 21 million km2 – greater than the land area of the Russian Federation to the global network.
The inclusion of a new category of protected area--‘Other effective area-based conservation measures’ (OECMs), areas important to conservation that exist outside of formally protected areas, such as lands managed by Indigenous and local communities, have led to significant progress, and are responsible for adding a further 1.6 million km2 to the global network.
More work needs to be done to protect areas of importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services: 33.8% of rich biodiversity areas lack coverage by protected areas or OECMs in the terrestrial and inland water realms, and 33.9% in the marine realm.
Increasing recognition of the role that protected and conserved areas can play as nature-based solutions to climate change and other global challenges, and their contribution to realising multiple Sustainable Development Goals, provides a strong justification for investing in more effective national and global networks.
Brian O’Donnell, Director, Campaign for Nature said:
“The Protected Planet report helps reaffirm that the current proposal to protect at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030 is both needed and achievable.
While highlighting the significant expansion of protected and conserved areas over the past ten years, the report shows that much more work is needed to ensure that all protected and conserved areas are managed effectively and equitably and that they are focused on those areas that are most important for biodiversity.
These findings underscore the need for Indigenous People to be recognized as leaders in biodiversity conservation and for their rights to be protected and advanced. Full recognition of Indigenous and local community land rights should be a central pathway towards ensuring that we meet the next decade’s protected area target.
Successfully protecting and conserving at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030 will also require increased financing, roughly six times the amount of funding than what is currently invested for protected and conserved areas. In order to continue to build on the progress that this report showcases, governments from around the world need to dramatically increase their contributions to biodiversity finance and make the policy and regulatory changes needed to unlock more private investment.
The Legacy Landscapes Fund, an innovative private and public partnership also launched today, is a great example of the type of effort we will need much more of in order to effectively manage protected areas, particularly those in the developing world.”
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The Campaign for Nature works with scientists, Indigenous Peoples, and a growing coalition of over 100 conservation organizations around the world who are calling on policymakers to commit to clear and ambitious targets to be agreed upon at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, China in 2021 to protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030 and working with Indigenous leaders to ensure full respect for Indigenous rights.
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