COP15 Montreal: Asia must speed up its protected area coverage 6 times to meet the 30X30 goal

COP15 Montreal: Asia must speed up its protected area coverage 6 times to meet the 30X30 goal

Subject : Environment

Context-

• Asia is not likely to meet the ambitious 30X30 goal proposed under the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), according to new research released November 29, 2022.

Research findings-

• Countries have to commit to protecting 30 per cent of the land and sea by 2030 under this goal.
• Most Asian countries have failed to achieve even the global minimum target of protecting at least 17 per cent of land by 2020.
• Only 40 per cent of Asian countries achieved the target of a minimum of 17 per cent coverage for protected areas by 2020.
• Asian countries managed to protect barely 13.2 per cent of land in 2020, compared with a global average of 15.2 per cent protection.
• The target of 17 per cent is part of the 20 Aichi Targets set at the 2010 UN CBD.
• Countries in Asia also have a slower year-on-year increase in the amount of land protected for conservation, at just 0.4 per cent per year on average.
• Some countries showed no change while others showed a decrease in protected area coverage.
• Countries with larger areas under agricultural land in 2015 had a lower protected area coverage in 2020.
• Only 7 per cent of protected areas in Asia had any kind of assessment for their management effectiveness.
• Under the current trajectory, Asia as a whole would only achieve 18 per cent coverage by 2030.
• Within Asia, west and south Asia are likely to achieve only 11 per cent and 10 per cent coverage respectively by 2030.

About  30X30 target-

• The 30X30 target was first floated in 2019 in an article AGlobal Deal for Nature: Guiding principles, milestones, and targets published in Science Advances.
• This then became the global call of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People in 2020 and as of October 2022, more than 100 countries are part of it.

Challenges in achieving the target-

• The target has been dubbed ‘the biggest land grab in history’ which will take away land and livelihood from 300 million people, many of them tribal and indigenous peoples.
• Human rights experts fear that if the world pushes the proposed target, indigenous communities would have lower access to the areas.
• The indigenous peoples’ lands accounted for 30 per cent of the primate range, and 71 per cent of primate species inhabited these lands.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)-

• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a legally binding treaty to conserve biodiversity has been in force since 1993.
• It has 3 main objectives:

1. The conservation of biological diversity.
2. The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity.
3. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.

• Nearly all countries have ratified it (notably, the US has signed but not ratified).
• The CBD Secretariat is based in Montreal, Canada and it operates under the United Nations Environment Programme.
• The Parties (Countries) under Convention of Biodiversity (CBD), meet at regular intervals and these meetings are called Conference of Parties (COP).
• In 2000, a supplementary agreement to the Convention known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was adopted. It came into force on 11th September 2003.
  • The Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.
• The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) was adopted in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan at COP10. It entered into force on 12th October 2014.
  • It not only applies to genetic resources that are covered by the CBD, and to the benefits arising from their utilization but also covers traditional knowledge (TK) associated with genetic resources that are covered by the CBD and the benefits arising from its utilization.
• Along with the Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources, the COP-10 also adopted a ten-year framework for action by all countries to save biodiversity.
• Officially known as the “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020”, it provided a set of 20 ambitious yet achievable targets collectively known as the Aichi Targets for biodiversity.
• Aichi Biodiversity Targets-
  • Strategic Goal A: Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society
  • Strategic Goal B: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use
  • Strategic Goal C: To improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
  • Strategic Goal D: Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Strategic Goal E: Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building
• India enacted Biological Diversity Act in 2002 for giving effect to the provisions of the CBD.