UN says protect 30% of land, oceans as biodiversity goals unveiled

PARIS: The UN on Monday unveiled the first draft text that will form the heart of forthcoming summit negotiations aimed at preserving at least 30 percent of land and oceans and a host of other biodiversity targets.

The draft, the result of months of online discussions, maps out the route for humanity to be “living in harmony with nature” by 2050. But green groups voiced scepticism that the text will survive the high-level negotiating process at the COP15 biodiversity summit, set for October.

Campaigners have for years called for a global agreement on halting biodiversity loss, similar to what the Paris Agreement lays out for climate.

With more than one million species facing extinction and the world failing to meet existing nature preservation targets, the need for an accord among the nearly 200 nations taking part in the talks is pressing. The draft outlines 21 targets and 10 “milestones” -- to be hit by 2030 -- in order to preserve biodiversity. These include restoring at least 20 percent of degraded ecosystems and ensuring that existing intact wild areas are retained. At least 30 percent of land and marine species should also be protected through conservation areas, the draft proposed.

The framework also calls for more sustainable farming and fishing practices, as well as “eliminating the discharge of plastic waste”.

“Urgent policy action globally, regionally and nationally is required to transform economic, social and financial models so that the trends that have exacerbated biodiversity loss will stabilise by 2030... with net improvements by 2050,” said the UN’s biodiversity chief, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema.