As UN COP16 nature talks are gridlocked, scientists warn of extinction risks
New deal uncertain on funding for nature conservation
38% of world's tree species at risk of extinction, IUCN reports
Nations still far from 30-by-30 goal, with 17% land now protected
Updates details of progress on 30-by-30 goal in paragraphs 7-10
By Jake Spring and Oliver Griffin
CALI, Colombia, Oct 28 (Reuters) -Countries were at an impasse over how to fund nature conservation and other key decisions as the U.N. COP16 biodiversity summit entered its second week on Monday in the Colombian mountain town of Cali.
With nature in unprecedented decline and species going extinct faster than ever, scientists warned the world's governments that there is no time to waste.
As of today, roughly 38% of the world's tree species - totaling 16,425 species - are at risk of extinction thanks to timber logging and clear-cutting to make way for farming, mining, road-building and other development efforts, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
"We need to take urgent action ... if we really want to keep these tree (species) alive," IUCN Director Grethel Aguilar told a news briefing in Cali.
The summit, which marks the 16th meeting of parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), is tasked with figuring out how to implement 23 goals outlined in the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aimed at halting and reversing nature loss by 2030.
Chief among those goals is having each country setaside 30% of its land and sea territory for conservation by 2030 - a target known as the 30-by-30 goal.
As of Monday, only 17.6% of the world's land area and inland waters were under some form of protection, according to the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP). That is far below the 30% goal, though many countries have yet to submit pledges despite this month's deadline.
Commitments for protecting the open ocean were even lower - with only 8.4% of maritime and coastal areas now protected, the UNEP report said.
The UNEP chief urged countries to not only meet the 30% conservation goal , but also to target high-value lands and waterways for protection rather than favoring wastelands or other areas that already have little wildlife and small human populations.
"We cannot be seduced by just these numbers," UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said on the sidelines of the summit. "Nature cannot be put in a museum."
By the summit's end on Friday, negotiators and observers hope to achieve progress on a raft of issues touching on financing, genetic material, Indigenous representation and conservation policy.
"The discussions are going well, but it's a heavy agenda," said David Ainsworth, a spokesperson for the secretariat.
While the intensity of these discussions shows countries' engagement, it is also in some cases a sign "of a relatively low level of trust" between countries, Ainsworth said. "They have a lot of work to do this week."
So far, delegates are close to agreeing on a measure to recognize and include Indigenous groups in biodiversity decision-making, including with a new permanent presence for these groups within the official U.N. CBD process.
But many are watching for COP16 to deliver strong options for funding conservation as a measure of the summit's success.
Summit talks on how to mobilize the billions of dollars needed to halt biodiversity loss this decade were stuck on Monday, as country delegates debated whether there should be an additional fund created to handle this financing.
Reporting by Jake Spring and Oliver Griffin in Cali, Colombia. Editing by Katy Daigle and Marguerita Choy
Berita Terkini
Penafian: Entiti XM Group menyediakan perkhidmatan pelaksanaan sahaja dan akses ke Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian, yang membolehkan sesorang melihat dan/atau menggunakan kandungan yang ada di dalam atau melalui laman web, tidak bertujuan untuk mengubah atau memperluas, juga tidak mengubah atau mengembangkannya. Akses dan penggunaan tersebut tertakluk kepada: (i) Terma dan Syarat; (ii) Amaran Risiko; dan Penafian Penuh. Oleh itu, kandungan sedemikian disediakan tidak lebih dari sekadar maklumat umum. Terutamanya, perlu diketahui bahawa kandungan Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian bukan permintaan, atau tawaran untuk melakukan transaksi dalam pasaran kewangan. Berdagang dalam mana-mana pasaran kewangan melibatkan tahap risiko yang besar terhadap modal anda.
Semua bahan yang diterbitkan di Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian kami bertujuan hanya untuk tujuan pendidikan/maklumat dan tidak mengandungi – dan tidak boleh dianggap mengandungi nasihat kewangan, cukai pelaburan atau dagangan dan cadangan, atau rekod harga dagangan kami, atau tawaran, atau permintaan untuk suatu transaksi dalam sebarang instrumen kewangan atau promosi kewangan yang tidak diminta kepada anda.
Sebarang kandungan pihak ketiga serta kandungan yang disediakan oleh XM, seperti pendapat, berita, penyelidikan, analisis, harga, maklumat lain atau pautan ke laman web pihak ketiga yang terdapat dalam laman web ini disediakan berdasarkan "seadanya" sebagai ulasan pasaran umum dan bukanlah nasihat pelaburan. Sesuai dengan apa-apa kandungan yang ditafsir sebagai penyelidikan pelaburan, anda mestilah ambil perhatian dan menerima bahawa kandungan tersebut tidak bertujuan dan tidak sediakan berdasarkan keperluan undang-undang yang direka untuk mempromosikan penyelidikan pelaburan bebas dan oleh itu, ia dianggap sebagai komunikasi pemasaran di bawah peraturan dan undang-undang yang berkaitan. SIla pastikan bahawa anda telah membaca dan memahami Notifikasi mengenai Penyelidikan Pelaburan Bukan Bebas dan Amaran Risiko mengenai maklumat di atas yang boleh diakses di sini.
