GreenBiz
October 2, 2019
A diverse group of 19 multinational companies — including food giant Danone, cosmetics queen L’Oreal and data powerhouse Google — are digging deep to plant the seeds for a global push to protect and promote biodiversity.
Boston Globe - OpEd
October 1, 2019
Anyone paying attention to world events could hardly help but feel despair about increasing climate chaos and social inequality, plummeting wildlife populations and political strife.
But in my role as the UN Patron of Protected Areas and as president of Tompkins Conservation, I’ve seen firsthand a reason for hope: Committed people working together can help nature heal — can help “rewild” degraded places, restore the conditions that support abundant wildlife, and foster beauty.
United Nations General Assembly
New York, September 28, 2019 — Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda of the Republic of Uganda, addressed the 74th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations today. In his remarks, he spoke of Uganda’s commitment to addressing global climate change and the crisis of biodiversity loss.
"That's why Uganda is supporting a proposal at next year's Convention on Biological Diversity that takes bold steps to create a sustainable planet, including protecting at least 30 percent of our lands and generating significantly more funding from governments and the private sector to protect the nature on which our lives and our economies depend."
Watch the Prime Minister’s remarks climate change and biodiversity:
Campaign For Nature
September 27, 2019
Protecting diverse ecosystems and the natural benefits that they provide is essential to the future of life on our planet and the well-being of humanity.
Those services, which are often called ecosystem services, include providing resources such as food and water, maintaining habitats that support biodiversity, offering opportunities for recreation, and helping to regulate human-caused impacts like climate change.
Campaign For Nature
September 26, 2019
Indigenous peoples and local communities around the world should be recognized and supported as leaders in global conservation efforts.
A recent study of spatial data in the journal Nature, reveals that indigenous peoples manage or have tenure rights over 38 million square kilometers of land in 87 countries. This land accounts for over a quarter of the terrestrial area of the globe, and interfaces with over 40 percent of the world’s existing conservation areas.
National Geographic
September 25, 2019
On Wednesday, the IPCC released a major report on the state of the planet's oceans and ice. The 900-page report, which compiles the findings from thousands of scientific studies, outlines the damage climate change has already done to the planet’s vast oceans and fragile ice sheets and forecasts the future for these crucial parts of the climate system.
National Geographic
September 25, 2019
In 2014, scientists called for 30 percent of the world’s oceans to be protected by a network of MPAs by 2030, yet it already seems likely the world will fall short of the UN’s goal to protect 10 percent of oceans by 2020. Though the UN says we’re 8 percent of the way there, experts caution that only 2.2 percent of the world’s oceans are fully off limits to commercial activity, and only 4.8 percent is actively managed.
Campaign For Nature
September 25, 2019
Habitat destruction is one of the biggest threats facing plants and animal species throughout the world. The loss of habitat has far-reaching impacts on the planet’s ability to sustain life, but even with the challenges, there is hope for the future.
Energy Live
September 24, 2019
The UK has announced the launch of a new global alliance to help drive urgent action to protect the world’s oceans and their wildlife. The Global Ocean Alliance will push for the trebling of existing targets to ensure at least a third of the oceans is safeguarded in Marine Protected Areas by 2030.
Campaign for Nature
September 23, 2019
The Earth is facing a dual crisis of rapid climate change and unprecedented biodiversity loss. A recent UN report on biodiversity estimates the global rate of species extinction is currently tens to hundreds of times higher than it has averaged over the past 10 million years.
Campaign For Nature
September 23, 2019
Today, on the eve of the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Summit, President Carlos Alvarado Quesada of Costa Rica, called for the formation of a High Ambition Coalition of nations to push for a Deal for Nature that will protect 30% of the planet by 2030.
Campaign For Nature
September 23, 2019
Effectively managed protected areas are a critical tool for safeguarding biodiversity, maintaining ecosystem balance, preserving important habitats, building resilience to climate change, providing global food security, maintaining water quality, conserving natural resources, driving economic success, curbing the spread of diseases and pests, and providing many other benefits to wildlife and human health.
National Geographic
September 21, 2019
The United Nations (UN) Youth Climate Summit and the 74th session of the UN General Assembly are taking place in New York this week. Both events highlight the critical importance of taking swift, decisive action on climate change, including achieving sustainable land and ocean management practices and resilience and adaptation to climate change impacts.
The Guardian - OpEd
September 19, 2019
The evidence is unequivocal: biodiversity, important in its own right and essential for current and future generations, is being destroyed by human activities at a rate unprecedented in human history.
Governments around the world recognised this at the Earth summit in Brazil in 1992 and established the Convention on Biological Diversity to protect and conserve biodiversity. But the situation has become more and more dire. I have chaired or co-chaired three international assessments on the state of knowledge of biodiversity, and all have repeated the same message – we are destroying it at an alarming rate. Each time we have called for action, only to be largely ignored.
Convention on Biological Diversity
September 18, 2019
On behalf of the Republic of Rwanda, the Minister of Environment Vincent Biruta, reaffirmed the country’s commitment of a “comprehensive and ambitious Post-2020 biodiversity framework.” The country’s goals include the commitment to 30x30, helping protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030.