One of the 23 goals of the framework is to encourage the public and corporate sectors to contribute $200 billion annually to conservation efforts by 2030.
The United Nations requested funds to help safeguard 30% of land and coastal regions by 2030 as environmental officials from 185 nations convened in Vancouver, Canada, on Thursday to endorse a multibillion-dollar fund to assist global conservation.
States ratified the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, sometimes referred to as the “Paris Agreement for Nature” due to its landmark 2015 United Nations climate change deal, eight months ago. More than a million species are reportedly in risk of extinction, according to the U.N.
One of the 23 goals of the framework is to encourage the public and corporate sectors to contribute $200 billion annually to conservation efforts by 2030, with industrialized nations contributing at least $20 billion annually by 2025.
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity’s interim executive secretary, David Cooper, declared that “we are off to a good start.” We are now requesting further contributions from nations and other sources so that the first initiatives funded by the new fund may get underway in 2019.
As needed by the World Bank as trustee, the fund has thus far fallen short of the $200 million USD it needs to be fully operating by December.
The United Kingdom provided 10 million pounds ($13 million) while Canada said on Thursday that it will give 200 million Canadian dollars ($147 million).
“The time for half-measures has passed,” declared Oscar Soria, the organization Avaaz’s director. The little $40 million needed to launch the fund may surely be raised by donors.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF), a mechanism established under the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, manages the Global Conservation Fund, which was launched on Thursday. Over the past 30 years, the GEF has given more than $23 billion to thousands of projects.
More than a third of the cash will be allocated to the world’s least developed nations and tiny island states, with up to 20% of that amount intended to support initiatives run by local communities and indigenous people, according to a statement from the GEF.