Agreement reached in Armenia
Delegates from nearly 200 countries in Yerevan reached an agreement on the main parts of a new nature action plan early Saturday morning after nearly two weeks of negotiation. This follows a 2022 deal where nations committed to "halt and reverse" nature decline through 24 targets. While nations have already put 623 million acres of degraded land into protection, the UN reports that the world is on track to achieve only one of the 24 targets set in 2022. I find the disconnect between these conservation numbers and the reality of the sixth mass extinction, where species vanish at 100 times the natural rate, deeply unsettling. Catherine Weller of Fauna & Flora noted that countries must achieve a course correction to protect nature, which she says remains critical to economies and wellbeing. Craig Bennett, CEO of The Wildlife Trusts, told BBC News that the ongoing loss of ecosystems threatens global collapse. The WWF praised conservation efforts that recovered species such as elephants, green sea turtles, and tigers just last month.
Funding shortages and political blocks
Funding remains the primary barrier to accelerating conservation efforts. In 2022, nations agreed to provide $30bn for nature recovery and mobilize a further $170bn from private sources by the end of the decade. However, the UN reports many nations redirected international aid toward defense budgets and energy shocks, which prevents pledges from reaching required rates. At this meeting, philanthropists including Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re:wild organization provided half of the more than $1bn pledged. The Cali Fund aims to raise up to $3.6bn annually from companies that use environmental genetic material, but it received only $10,000 at the start of the meeting. Craig Bennett noted the voluntary nature of this fund makes it difficult to pressure companies to pay communities for their biodiversity. Anna Ducros from the International Institute for Environment and Development observed that governments currently pay twice because they subsidize large-scale fishing that is especially harmful for nature and also increase spending on nature. I find the political maneuvering by Saudi Arabia and Russia to block scientific reports on the state of nature to be an appalling distraction. French Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut called these actions "attacks on science." This political pressure mirrors challenges faced by the IPCC, as Professor David Lee of Manchester University noted that political maneuvering can affect scientific outputs in the interest of humanity.
