As delegates from across the globe gather in Montreal for an international climate meeting, the need to protect Canada’s nature and prevent biodiversity loss is greater than ever.
The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) began last week and is slated to conclude on December 19. The purpose of the event is to set out new goals and create an action plan to protect the environment over the next decade while reversing as much biodiversity loss as possible worldwide.
Canada’s federal government is pushing for an international collaboration on a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, with a goal of having 30 per cent of targeted lands and oceans conserved by 2030, something the government of Canada and more than 100 other countries have committed to.
The CBD dates back to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, where 150 world leaders signed the agreement to promote sustainable development and recognize biodiversity loss affects food security, medicine, fresh air, water, shelter and a clean and healthy environment.
As The Guardian reported last week, the global biodiversity summit also marks the biggest police operation in Montreal in two decades.
The summit has been met with criticism from environmental experts and advocates, who organized mass demonstrations in Montreal to bring awareness to the biodiversity crisis.
‘Canada has a lot on the line’: minister
In his opening remarks to COP15 participants, Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault warned there are one million species currently at risk of extinction around the world.
“When we conserve or restore forests and wetlands, we help nature, and we help nature help us, by sequestering carbon, cleaning our water and air, and providing rich ecosystems for life,” he said.
While every country has a role to play in protecting biodiversity, Canada has a lot on the line. Guilbeault noted the country is “home to 20 per cent of the world’s fresh water, 24 per cent of wetlands, 25 per cent of temperate rainforest area, and 28 per cent of the remaining boreal forest.”
The minister touted the federal government’s efforts to protect the environment, including more than $5 billion in spending committed to nature action, with at least 20 per cent going to nature-based initiatives outside of Canada.
Guilbeault also stated all efforts to protect the environment must be done “in full partnership with Indigenous peoples.”
Canada’s decision to host the conference comes after more than two years of delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Inger Anderson, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, COP15 is “but a few days to act decisively and with principle.”
Anderson says action “must be bold, not bracketed.” She pointed out the pandemic delays gave governments more time to plan their responses to biodiversity loss.
“Let us not squander that,” Anderson said.
Species at risk have doubled since 2002: WCS
For scientists with the organization Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS), the country’s vast wilderness isn’t enough to prevent the biodiversity crisis.
With half of the global area for natural ecosystems lost, along with the biomass of wild animals dropping by 82 per cent, the sense of urgency to preserve ecosystems is greater than ever.
In a December 8 news release, WCS noted its national list of species at risk has doubled since it first began in 2002. Even more concerning is the fact that few endangered species are “on the road to recovery.”
Pointing to a new report’s findings that thousands of wild species in Canada could disappear without government intervention on the biodiversity crisis, the release added that wetlands and woodlands in the country’s southern regions have been “reduced to small fragments.”
The release pointed out that Canadian wildlife provides the ideal breeding habitat for billions of migratory birds each year.
Canada’s biodiversity is also being jeopardized by a growing dependence on more Northern regions of the country to extract resources like oil, threatening “some of the planet’s largest and most intact forests and peatlands.”
Scientists with WCS Canada are studying ways to protect vulnerable wolverines and lake sturgeon. They’re also working to save bats from deadly disease, as well as reducing the impact of growing ship noise on marine mammals.
With tens of thousands of lakes and rivers, along with the world’s longest ocean coastline, WCS says Canada’s role in combating the global biodiversity crisis is critical.
“The fact that this country still has globally important intact wild areas is really a result of Indigenous stewardship,” the release reads.
Indigenous Peoples must have central role in protecting biodiversity: Greenpeace
Ahead of COP15, climate advocacy organization Greenpeace International urged world leaders to recognize Indigenous rights as a necessary first step to developing a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Greenpeace said the summit will only be successful if the final text of the framework includes “explicit recognition for Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ rights and central roles in protecting biodiversity globally, including prior and informed consent.”
The non-profit is also advocating for an allocation of at least $100 billion U.S. dollars each year by developed countries for developing countries.
“It is impossible to talk about biodiversity conservation without mentioning Indigenous Lands,” said Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator for the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil in a news release.
Tuxá noted that global areas managed by Indigenous Peoples are “among the most conserved,” despite their small percentage of the world’s population. But even with impressive conservation rates, Indigenous communities “remain outside the decision-making process and without our rights to our territories.”
Amnesty International agrees.
The environmental organization noted in a news release last week that 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity is found on Indigenous-managed lands.
Amnesty International is also calling for any agreement to be met with a guarantee that “subsistence land-users have access to land, are protected from forced evictions, enjoy an adequate standard of living, and are consulted on all decisions that impact their rights.
Indigenous representatives at the convention are restricted in their ability to provide consent, only having the right to speak and make suggestions with no guarantee their recommendations are honoured.
“The loss and degradation of biodiversity threatens human and non-human life and is a major source of human rights violations, including the right to life,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, in a statement.
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