COP15: a last chance to save biodiversity?

Saving the world’s biodiversity is a job for all of us. It is clear governments need to set aside differences to ensure effective international action, but the scale of the task requires a mobilisation of all stakeholders, bringing in business, civil society, farmers and citizens around the world.

That was among the key messages coming out of Thursday’s ‘COP15: a last chance to save biodiversity?’, a debate organised as part of Friends of Europe’s Europe-China Dialogue.

Bringing in experts from Europe, Asia and beyond, the online event looked at what Europe and Asia can do together to protect and promote global biodiversity in the context of the United Nations’s COP15 conference. Potentially the decade’s most important biodiversity debate, COP15 is due to resume next April in Kunming, China, after a first online session in October.

“We are living in a world where species are dying out,” cautioned Zhang Ming, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union. “Biodiversity is at risk; the ecosystem is degrading. This all poses a huge risk to our survival and development as human society.”

The ambassador outlined China’s efforts to advance conservation domestically and internationally. He underscored the importance of EU-China cooperation as part of the global struggle to prevent biodiversity loss, hold back climate change and protect against public health threats. “For the international community to combat these challenges, I believe sincere cooperation is indispensable,” he added.

The opening sessions of COP15 have laid a “good foundation”, said Marie Stenseke, Co-Chair of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), but there is much work still to be done.

She laid out three priorities for the international community in defending biodiversity: building a stronger rule-of-law framework that enforces environmental protection and removes economic incentives for habitat destruction; a revision of economic development measurement that moves beyond the limitations of GDP growth; and the expansion of cross-sectoral approaches to mainstream biodiversity protection into all areas.

“Transformative changes are necessary … for biodiversity. We are not doing enough,” Stenseke said. “To be inclusive and participatory … is the necessary approach in order to be successful, to halt the loss of biodiversity and reverse the trends. It demands actions from all of us.”

That inclusive approach involves engagement with public opinion and reaching out to all sectors of society. Local communities, youth and women have a key role in developing the synergies needed to build effective responses, said Linxiu Zhang, Director of the United Nations Environment Programme – International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP). Supporting community participation and female empowerment could be a key area for EU-Asia cooperation, she added.

“Indigenous people and local communities contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, through the application of traditional knowledge but also innovations and practices and through stewardship of biodiversity on their traditional lands,” Linxiu Zhang explained. “The important roles played by women and girls and youth have been broadly recognised.”

Participants joining the debate from Asia and Africa complained about the lack of resources for biodiversity initiatives on the ground, despite promises of assistance. “The funds exist but on the ground, we don’t see anything,” said Fadi Noutchemo, Founder and President at the Young African Aviation Professional Association (YAAPA54). “What I want to see, if we all want to save the world, is little initiatives where opportunities are given people who really care about the world. I’m personally tired of the policies that don’t work.”

Another important area where Europe and Asia can work together is ensuring best practices can be shared around the world, said Zhang Fengchun, Research Fellow at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES).

“China’s domestic experience can help other countries and regions of the world, including some best practices, successful models and technologies and some concepts that can be directly used by other countries,” he said.