Historic UN deal on biodiversity to protect 30% of land and water by 2030

Almost 200 countries have reached a landmark deal to protect nature at the United Nations biodiversity conference early yesterday, pledging to safeguard one-third of the world's land and oceans.

- STUTI MISHRA

The global framework comes at the end of two weeks of negotiations held at the 15th Conference of Parties or Cop15 for biodiversity in Montreal, which was jointly chaired by Canada and China.

In a landmark moment, Chinese minister of ecology Huang Runqiu, who was chairing the meeting, brought down the official gavel and declared a pending proposed deal has passed. Ministers and negotiators from almost 200 countries erupted in cheers and applause after finalising the pact, known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which has laid down a commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030.

Currently, only 17 per cent of terrestrial and 10 per cent of marine areas are protected. This year's UN biodiversity summit had been regarded as a "last chance" to put nature on a path to recovery, after unprecedented biodiversity losses in recent decades.

A UN-backed study released ahead of the original 2020 date for the conference - before the pandemic hit - showed up to a million species were at risk of extinction, many within decades. "There has never been a conservation goal globally at this scale," Brian O'Donnell, the director of the conservation group Campaign for Nature, told reporters. This puts us within a chance of safeguarding biodiversity from collapse ... We're now within the range that scientists think can make a marked difference in biodiversity."