If we want real biodiversity targets then we need to address problems with the existing negotiation draft for the Kunming biodiversity talks, argues Peng Kui oronavirus has forced many to look again at how humanity relates to animals and nature. In Kunming this October, a meeting of importance to all life on the planet will take place: the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CDB) 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15). It is no exaggeration to describe this as of historical significance. The most important task at COP15 is to decide upon a post-2020 global biodiversity framework, setting biodiversity targets for the next decade and a 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature”, as well as producing an ambitious action
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plan to achieve these goals. On 6 January 2020, the CBD published a “zero draft” to serve as the basis for negotiations. This initial version of a 2020 framework was discussed last week in Rome. But there is still a clear gap between the text and the vision for biodiversity protection. Aichi disappointments Since 1992, when the CBD was opened for signature, humanity has failed to prevent the loss of biodiversity – and in many countries, the situation has worsened. At COP6, in 2002, a Strategic Plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted, with a bold aim: “to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss”. But assessments found that first decadal goal was unachievable and species extinctions actually accelerated.
In 2010, COP10 was held in Nagoya, Japan, producing the 2011-2020 Strategic Plan. This included 20 headline targets, known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and called for “effective and urgent action” to avoid the loss of the natural biodiversity on which humanity relies. But progress was difficult. In 2018, France’s Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations determined that most of the 20 Aichi targets were unlikely to be achieved by 2020. In April 2019, IPBES (the Intergovernmental SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) said in its Global Assessment Report that one million of the planet’s eight million species, and 40% of amphibious species, were facing extinction, with the scale of nature loss worsening. International society has no choice but to re-examine its approach and clear structural failings in order to set the CBD on
