Despite being apex predators in the food chain, the animals were shy and generally avoided humans. Nevertheless, a bounty for their skins was established as they were blamed for preying on the cows and sheep that the settlers brought with them. Many Tasmanian tigers were slain for these bounties, and the rest were eliminated by habitat loss and the introduction of wild dogs and new diseases.
Benjamin, the last known Tasmanian tiger, died in 1936, two months after the species gained protected status.
Dodos and mammoths are other well-known species that were pushed to extinction by human activity, but a vast number have likely disappeared without having ever been discovered in the first place.
Biodiversity, which is the variety of life on Earth, underpins the resources needed for the survival of life itself. However, species are becoming extinct faster than ever, and humans are largely to blame.
Between destroying habitats, releasing pollutants, changing the climate, and introducing non-native species that overtake native ones, we are currently putting around 1 million animal and plant species at risk of dying out. While biodiversity is essential to food production, such as through pollinators or microorganisms in the soil, land conversion for agriculture and other uses continues to be its greatest threat.
Resolving this will take global, coordinated action, which will soon take the form of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Coordinated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), an agency of the U.N., the framework will steer governments toward taking steps to protect their countries’ biodiversity.
The first draft of the framework was published in July 2021, but it will be further negotiated at the Conference of the Parties (COP15) currently scheduled for 2022, when every detail will be negotiated by representatives of the 196 parties to the Convention.
The CBD is a leading international treaty that coordinates governmental action for biodiversity, similar in importance to the Paris Agreement on climate change. It was formed in 1992 at the Earth Summit, a major U.N. conference that sparked global cooperation on sustainability and now oversees the conservation of Earth’s biodiversity and the sustainable and fair sharing of its genetic resources. All U.N. member states have ratified the treaty – except the U.S.
At 2010’s COP10 held in Nagoya, Japan, the CBD adopted a decade-long plan for improving biodiversity conservation, known as the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020.
The plan included the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets – strategic benchmarks to be achieved by 2020, ranging from halving the rate of forest loss to the full integration of traditional knowledge into the CBD’s work.
But in September 2020, as the Targets reached their deadline, the CBD revealed in a sweeping report that none of the Aichi Targets had been fully met, and only six of the Targets were partially met.
“If you look at the scorecard, like a school report, the highest is below 30 percent of the progress,” Elizabeth Mrema, executive secretary of the CBD, told UN News last year.
“Not one Aichi Target will be fully met, so that, by itself, of the 20 targets, 10 years, we have failed.”
The draft of the new Post-2020 Framework includes a major new addition to help it achieve the level of conservation that the Aichi Targets did not: a sub-framework for monitoring and evaluation that brings certain indicators of progress to the fore to assist countries in prioritizing their efforts and tracking the effectiveness of their conservation work.
The 21 targets of the new draft framework are divided into three main sections: reducing pressure on biodiversity, using it to improve human life and developing the tools needed to reach these goals. Like its predecessor, it includes targets that call for the reduction of harmful subsidies and invasive alien species.
Other key new areas of the framework include:
Addressing the three “levels” of biodiversity – diversity within genetics, species and ecosystems – in a balanced manner;
Acknowledging a more holistic approach to conservation action that not only addresses its extent but also the integrity, quality, connectivity and sustainable management of all natural and semi-natural ecosystems;
A new target on restoration; and
Strengthening conservation finance to overcome current gaps and forthcoming effects of the COVID-19 pandemic through the efficient use of resources and commitment to mobilize more.
The draft targets also call for the conservation of 30 percent of the world’s terrestrial and marine habitat, the reduction of two-thirds of the pesticides lost to the environment and the elimination of plastic waste, to list a few. At least half of the negative impacts of biodiversity from all businesses should be reduced. Global food waste should be halved, too.
Why Is Biodiversity Important?
It also includes a significant shift in financing, such as cutting at least USD 500 billion in incentives that harm biodiversity every year, increasing financial resources for biodiversity by USD 200 billion annually, and raising financial flows to developing countries by at least USD 10 billion per year.
All of this money could help fund the implementation of ecosystem-based approaches, and a draft target calls for these measures to prevent 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide from being emitted every year (for reference, 33 gigatons of carbon dioxide were emitted in 2019).
“We’re hoping that 90 percent of the framework is agreed upon and that only 10 percent has to be negotiated at COP15. But having said that, until the whole framework is adopted, everything is open,” says Jyothi Mathur-Filipp, the director of the implementation support division at the CBD.
So, why should the new framework fare better than the Aichi Targets? Mathur-Filipp says that back when the Aichi Targets were agreed upon in 2010, none of the vehicles needed to actually implement these goals had yet been created.
“We had no indicators, no review mechanism, no capacity-building strategy, no resource mobilization strategies,” she says. “All of these things came two years, four years, six years later.”
She is confident that the Post-2020 Framework will enjoy greater success because many of these implementation strategies will already be up and running when the framework is adopted. These include a monitoring framework, a strategy for mobilizing public and private funds, and an action plan for mainstreaming biodiversity into legislation.
