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Scientists and leaders from over 190 countries are gathered in Montreal this week to discuss the biodiversity crisis at COP15, also known as the UN Biodiversity Conference. Possible outcomes of the conference might include agreements on global strategies to conserve biodiversity, linking climate change with the biodiversity crisis, and acknowledging the importance of Indigenous people in all conservation efforts.
“We are out of harmony with nature. In fact, we are playing an entirely different song," said UN Secretary António Guterres in his opening speech. "Around the world, for hundreds of years, we have conducted a cacophony of chaos, played with instruments of destruction. Deforestation and desertification are creating wastelands of once-thriving ecosystems."
If negotiations are successful, leaders will finalize and sign a document called the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, a strategy with measurable targets to conserve ecosystems. One of these targets is the commitment to conserve at least 30 percent of Earth’s land and water by 2030, which many nations signed onto last month at the COP27 conference on climate change. Currently, only about 17 percent of the world's land area falls under some sort of protection, while less than 8 percent of the global ocean is protected.
Although the U.S. is not a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the presence of a U.S. delegation there is important given its influence on other nations and its existing commitment to 30x30 by way of the Biden administration's America the Beautiful Initiative.
Podcast: Photographer Pete McBride on the Colorado River
Renowned nature photographer, filmmaker, and writer Pete McBride joins Aaron and CWP’s Director of Campaigns and Special Projects Lauren Bogard on the Landscape to discuss his work documenting the Colorado River. Listen now or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
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It’s a standard practice in Indigenous cultures to recognize that all around us are relatives—some are human, some are other species or other forms.”
