UN Convention lays out 10-year plan to save Earth's biodiversity

16 Jan 2020

UN Convention lays out 10-year plan to save Earth’s biodiversity

UN Convention lays out 10-year plan to save Earth’s biodiversityWe have been reading about the dangerous impact of climate change-related disasters (like the Australian bushfires) on the environment and wildlife.

The UN (United Nations) Convention on Biological Diversity released a draft plan on 13 January which aims to combat the ongoing biodiversity crisis in the coming decades.

The plan will be finalised and adopted in October 2020 at a biodiversity summit in Kunming, China.

What does the draft plan say?

It says we will need to protect almost a third of the Earth by 2030 and pollution has to be cut by half to save our remaining wildlife.
 	The draft plan says that biodiversity is essential to human well-being and a healthy planet but it continues to deteriorate. Urgent action on local and global levels is required.

What are the targets of the convention?

The convention has set 20 targets to be achieved by 2030.
 	The targets include giving 'protected status' to sites important for biodiversity, cutting pollution from plastic wastes, etc by at least 50%, improving quality of life of vulnerable communities to reduce human-wildlife conflict and more.

Why are these targets needed?

Scientists have warned that we are in the middle of a mass extinction - the sixth in the planet's history, and the first one caused by humans.
 	In total, a million of the world's 8 million species are currently facing extinction, many within decades.

The convention had set similar targets in 2010 but the world failed to meet most of those 2020 goals.

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