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201426Jul08:08

Bio­di­ver­sity and ecosys­tems declared essen­tial for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment by the United Nations

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pub­lished 26 July 2014 | mod­i­fied 09 August 2014
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United Nations Decade on BiodiversityBio­log­i­cal diver­sity and ecosys­tems fea­tured promi­nently in the pro­posal of a set of 17 Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) that the Open Work­ing Group on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals of the 68th ses­sion of the United Nations Gen­eral Assem­bly agreed by accla­ma­tion to for­ward to the Gen­eral Assem­bly, set­ting the stage for bet­ter links between the imple­men­ta­tion of the bio­di­ver­sity agenda of the Con­ven­tion on Bio­log­i­cal Diver­sity, and the post-​2015 sus­tain­able devel­op­ment agenda.

The results demon­strate the grow­ing recog­ni­tion that bio­di­ver­sity is essen­tial for sus­tain­able development
Braulio Fer­reira de Souza Dias, Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary of the Con­ven­tion on Bio­log­i­cal Diversity »

“Now we need to ensure that bio­di­ver­sity remains strongly in the final out­comes for the post-​2015 agenda. We fur­ther need to ensure that the imple­men­ta­tion of these goals and tar­gets is done in a mean­ing­ful and effec­tive man­ner” added Braulio Fer­reira de Souza Dias.

The out­come of the delib­er­a­tions of the Open Work­ing Group is extremely pos­i­tive from the per­spec­tive of the Con­ven­tion on Bio­log­i­cal Diver­sity and the imple­men­ta­tion of the Strate­gic Plan for Bio­di­ver­sity 20112020 and the Aichi Bio­di­ver­sity Tar­gets. This Strate­gic Plan for Bio­di­ver­sity 20112020 coin­cides with and is sup­ported by the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity.

(United Nations Decade on Bio­di­ver­sity — Offi­cial Video)



Bio­di­ver­sity and ecosys­tems are included through­out the pro­posed SDGs

  • There are two goals directly related to biodiversity:

    • Goal 14 on oceans and coasts, and Goal 15 on ter­res­trial biodiversity.

    • Goal 12 on sus­tain­able con­sump­tion and pro­duc­tion is also very rel­e­vant to the Strate­gic Plan.

  • Lan­guage refer­ring to bio­di­ver­sity and ecosys­tems and/​or nat­ural resources is also included in many other goals, including

    • Goal 2 on food security

    • Goal 6 on water and sanitation

    • Goal 11 on cities and human settlements.

  • Other goals which include “sus­tain­abil­ity” con­sid­er­a­tions are also of rel­e­vance, as is Goal 17 on means of implementation.

The lan­guage of the open­ing words under­scores that con­ser­va­tion, sus­tain­able use and equi­table shar­ing of ben­e­fits are at the heart of the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment process. Para­graph 3 states: “Poverty erad­i­ca­tion, chang­ing unsus­tain­able and pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able pat­terns of con­sump­tion and pro­duc­tion and pro­tect­ing and man­ag­ing the nat­ural resource base of eco­nomic and social devel­op­ment are the over­ar­ch­ing objec­tives of and essen­tial require­ments for sus­tain­able development.”

One of the most impor­tant achieve­ments is the inclu­sion in Goal 15 of tar­get 15.9 “by 2020, inte­grate ecosys­tems and bio­di­ver­sity val­ues into national and local plan­ning, devel­op­ment processes and poverty reduc­tion strate­gies, and accounts.” This tar­get is key as it makes a strong link­age between bio­di­ver­sity, sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and poverty eradication.

The co-​chairs of the Open Work­ing Group — Ambas­sador Csaba Kőrösi of Hun­gary and Ambas­sador Macharia Kamau of Kenya, will for­ward the text of 17 goals and 169 tar­gets as a report to the Gen­eral Assem­bly. This out­come will form an impor­tant part of the Sec­re­tary General’s “syn­the­sis report” on SDGs and the post-​2015 agenda, which will lay out the final steps for com­plet­ing the post-​2015 pack­age in 2015, bring­ing together dif­fer­ent processes that have been ongo­ing: one on SDGs, one on the post-​2015 agenda, and one that includes the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Com­mit­tee of Experts on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Financ­ing, sup­ported by the Work­ing Group on Financ­ing for Sus­tain­able Development.

“The co-​chairs need to be con­grat­u­lated for their tire­less efforts and their deft abil­ity to guide the dis­cus­sions over the last months” said Braulio Fer­reira de Souza Dias. “Thanks to their work and skill, the world is engaged in one coor­di­nated con­ver­sa­tion on one of the most impor­tant out­comes of the Rio+20 conference.”

These results are directly rel­e­vant to the theme of the upcom­ing twelfth meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties to the Con­ven­tion on Bio­log­i­cal Diver­sity (COP-​12) and its High Level Seg­ment — Bio­di­ver­sity for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, and point to the grow­ing recog­ni­tion out­side of the tra­di­tional bio­di­ver­sity com­mu­nity of the essen­tial role of bio­di­ver­sity to achiev­ing sus­tain­able development.

When Par­ties to the CBD meet in Pyeongchang, COP-​12 and the High Level Seg­ment will pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties to fur­ther rein­force and inte­grate the agenda of the CBD with that of the post-​2015 process and of SDGs. It is expected that a num­ber of COP-​12 deci­sions, related to oceans, forests, bio­di­ver­sity for devel­op­ment and oth­ers, as well as the many par­al­lel meet­ings and side events will have the poten­tial to con­tribute to advanc­ing and imple­ment­ing the goals and tar­gets pro­posed under the SDG process. The Pyeongchang Roadmap, an antic­i­pated result from COP-​12, will also be impor­tant to ensur­ing that the bio­di­ver­sity and the post-​2015 agen­das are more closely linked. The dec­la­ra­tion of the High Level Seg­ment is also expected to be trans­mit­ted to the United Nations Gen­eral Assem­bly, and pro­vide addi­tional ele­ments to the dis­cus­sions on the post-​2015 process and the SDGs.

To high­light the essen­tial role of bio­di­ver­sity for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, the Sec­re­tariat has cho­sen to cel­e­brate the Inter­na­tional Day for Bio­log­i­cal Diver­sity on 22 May 2015 under the theme of “Bio­di­ver­sity for Sus­tain­able Development.”



(Source: CBD press release, 25.07.2014)


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