The United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) commences on 7 December 2022 in Montreal, Canada , and will run until 19 December 2022. COP15 focuses on the living world through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a treaty adopted for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and related issues.
COP15 aims to achieve an historic agreement to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, on par with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.(1)
Today’s reports on the conference are quite sobering though. Developing countries have walked out of the conference due to disagreement on funding of the biodiversity efforts.
The issues faced in this biodiversity summit seem to mirror what was seen in Egypt last month even though more promises of funding climate actions and early warning technologies were made there. (2)
The Global South is paying a high price for the Global North excesses, as much on the climate front as the biodiversity front, because guess what, both are linked!
Flora and fauna diversity is a major contributor for regulating ecosystems and consequently weather patterns. The very well documented re-introduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park is becoming a popular example of how an ecosystem ‘restored’ to what was believed to be its primal state can thrive again with the relevant nudge and a lot of observations and not interference. (3)
This is one of the reasons why it is critical to have a system approach to the current crises faced by the planet and consequently humanity. We are nature, as much as the fungi in the soil that feeds us or the polar bear that is being starved due to drastic changes in their immediate environment.
The biodiversity summit has been kept away from the front page because people don’t seem to be able to connect biodiversity, perfect equilibrium between all species and their ecosystems and our survival on this planet.
Biodiversity loss, which has reached dramatic levels in the UK is as much newsworthy as the increase in Greenhouse Gas concentration in the atmosphere.
What will this summit achieve now that the bearers of the richest biodiversity pockets on this planet have left the table?
Let’s hope that there will be a way to support nature regeneration efforts around the globe as a global collective endeavour, away from the usual givers/takers’ scenario.
The conclusion here is to take matters in our hands and act locally within our own community and surroundings, promoting initiatives that put nature first, defending nature against greed and concrete, bringing back our people in nature to re-establish the fundamental bond between humans and their environment.
We are nature, not in nature, not on top of nature. Let’s preserve ourselves by preserving all the other species we share a planet with.
References:
(1): UNEP: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/video/cop15-biodiversity-web-life-connects-us-all, read on Dec 14th 2022
(2): https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-cop15-biodiversity-conference-in-montreal-to-discuss-role-of-financial/, read on Dec 14th 2022
(3): https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wildlife/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/, read on Dec 14th 2022
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