November 14, 2018- The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, heads the Spanish delegation participating in the World Summit on Biological Diversity, which is being held until 29 November in Sharm-El Sheick (Egypt). Morán has spoken at the High-Level Segment, which precedes the start of the fourteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP14) and the meetings of the Parties to its two Protocols, the Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols.
Under the slogan “Investing in biodiversity for people and for the planet”, this meeting is an important step on the road to halting global biodiversity loss, which should culminate in two years’ time at the Beijing summit with the establishment of an ambitious post-2020 framework. In this regard, Morán stressed that the European Union must lead the process to make the meeting in Beijing in 2020 a success: “We cannot continue down the path of biodiversity loss, so it is essential to place this issue at the centre of political agendas so that, in two years’ time, we can present ambitious objectives that provide an effective response to this complex challenge”.
The European Union’s position at the Sharm-El Sheick meeting is that the process for the adoption of such a post-2020 framework should allow for the development of ambitious, realistic and appropriate, measurable and time-bound targets that build on and reinforce the current targets of the so-called Aichi Targets and that progress on these targets can be effectively monitored. “The planet cannot afford to continue losing biodiversity at this accelerated rate, which brings us closer to the sixth mass extinction, as the scientific community has already warned,” said Morán.
“In the same way that the international community has been able to equip itself with a multilateral framework on climate change, the time has come for us to pay attention to biodiversity and be able to set ambitious goals that allow us to halt the loss of species, habitats and ecosystems, without which it will be impossible to guarantee our well-being and the Sustainable Development Goals”, he added.
STATE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY
The Secretary of State for the Environment took part in the session focused on the integration of biodiversity in the infrastructure sector, where he highlighted the rich biodiversity present in Spain and underlined the special responsibility that this entails, at all levels, with respect to its conservation. The integration of biodiversity into other sectoral policies is an essential issue to halt biodiversity loss and achieve sustainable growth and development.
In this context, he referred to the positive tools that already exist in Spain and that allow biodiversity to be better integrated into decision-making related to infrastructure development, such as land planning, land use management and the environmental assessment of plans, programmes and projects.
To go further, Morán announced that the Ministry for Ecological Transition is finishing preparing, with the close participation of other ministerial departments and regional and local administrations, the State Strategy for Green Infrastructure and Ecological Connectivity and Restoration. The main objectives of this plan are to reduce the effects of fragmentation and loss of ecological connectivity caused by changes in land use or as a result of the presence of infrastructure, to mitigate the effects of climate change and to restore and protect the services provided by ecosystems.
THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
The Convention on Biological Diversity is the only international instrument that comprehensively addresses biodiversity conservation. The three objectives of the Convention are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources.
The operation and development of this Convention is fundamentally based on the decisions adopted by the Parties during the Conference of the Parties (COP).
The meetings of its Parties, the Conference of the Parties, take place every two years and bring together the highest-level representatives to discuss the state of biodiversity in the world and agree on actions to reverse its deterioration.
The 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, agreed on a Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, a ten-year framework for action to save biodiversity and enhance its benefits to people. Within this plan are the so-called Aichi Targets, which make up a set of 20 targets, among which is, for example, to protect at least 17% of land and inland areas and 10% of marine and coastal areas by 2020.
