Global Biodiversity Framework - COP15

 

Saving the world’s nature, together

January 2023, by Amanda Lilleyman

In December 2022, global environmental leaders met in Montreal, Canada at the UN Biodiversity Conference, known colloquially as COP15. These biodiversity conferences are where discussions on the protection of the natural world take place, with the main goal of COP15 being to finalise the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF is a strategic document that guides the world’s response to the biodiversity crisis and lists a series of targets that each signatory country strives to meet. Sam Vine from BirdLife Australia attended the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and flew the flag for the protection of birds. The global Key Biodiversity Areas (from BirdLife International) team attended COP15 with the goal to add KBAs into the terminology used in the targets listed in the GBF. Although many countries were supportive of this, negotiations took place and KBAs did not end up in the final text of “target 3” of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, but nonetheless, KBAs are listed as indicators of the targets.

Target 3 (what is known as the 30x30 target) final text:

Ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of terrestrial, inland water, and of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, recognizing indigenous and traditional territories, where applicable, and integrated into wider landscapes, seascapes and the ocean, while ensuring that any sustainable use, where appropriate in such areas, is fully consistent with conservation outcomes, recognizing and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities including over their traditional territories.

This global meeting and framework follows on from previous efforts to address the biodiversity and extinction crisis, where partners of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to work towards a goal of protecting at least 17% of terrestrial land and inland water by 2020. This target was not met, which has caused some pessimism that the world will meet the post-2020 goal of 30x30.

So, what does this mean for the KBA program?

Well, we know that the Key Biodiversity Areas program is an ambitious attempt to identify, map, monitor and conserve the critical sites for global biodiversity across the planet, and we will continue to do the work we do. We will continue to work across all levels of governments and stakeholders to ensure that in meeting the 30x30 target, we are selecting the most appropriate areas that represent high biodiversity and threatened species.

It's important to remember that KBAs are more than protected areas – they incorporate private land, which is vital to consider in managing for a range of species. The 30x30 target needs to be more than the addition of land and sea to reach an area quota, it needs to be meaningful and contribute to the persistence of biodiversity.

Representativeness of biodiversity

Australia’s State of Environment report 2021 Biodiversity chapter stated that even though overall land and marine area protected in Australia exceeded area targets, it did not meet the target to be ecologically representative.

So, that begs the question, does Australia’s National Reserve System reflect the scale, distribution, and ranges of the most important places for biodiversity? This is something to consider when Australia aims to meet the 30x30 area quota under target 3 of the GBF.

“We will fail to halt extinctions if protected areas and OECMs are placed in locations that are politically easier to designate or that are nationally but not globally important.” - Andy Plumptre, KBA Secretariat

Overview of current national plans and strategies that contribute to achieving the goals of the GBF

  • Australia’s Strategy for Nature 2019 – 2030 This strategy represents a human values-based approach to the protection of nature. This is an important step, but we also need to be strategic about land and ecosystem designation in the national reserve system that will contribute to 30x30.

  • Nature Positive Plan Recognising the flaws in the Australian legal system that is supposed to protect species and habitat is a good first step, as is creating regional plans. “Conservation planning documents will identify and prioritise the threats, actions and important habitat for threatened species and ecological communities” … “These are areas of high environmental sensitivity, including with World Heritage or National Heritage values, Ramsar wetlands, critical habitat for threatened species and, by agreement, other areas of high conservation significance” (from page 19 of the plan). The NPP uses the term ‘Areas of High Environmental Value’. The problem with using terminology like this is that there is room for reinterpretation and the plan states that development in these areas will be “largely prohibited”. Additionally, these terms, whether high or moderate, are focused on a development perspective, rather than a biodiversity or nature perspective.

  • Threatened Species Action Plan 2022 – 2032 At least 65% of the “priority places” identified for targeted actions under this plan are KBAs. These places will receive support through condition and threat assessment, and identification of action and indicators among other key actions outlined in the plan.

  • Australia’s Strategy for the National Reserve System 2009 – 2030 The strategy operates as a plan to document and grow the areas of land for the long-term protection of ecosystems. The strategy includes four types of protected areas: public reserves, Indigenous Protected Areas, private protected areas, and shared management reserves. Importantly, the strategy states the just area designation is not the solution to the biodiversity crisis, it also requires effective management. This strategy was written before the KBA program was established in Australia. Given the urgency of the biodiversity crisis in the last decade, there is value in reviewing this strategy.

Koala in a tree (Amanda Lilleyman)

How can KBAs be used to achieve the GBF targets and goals?

“The vision of the KBA Programme is a comprehensive network of sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity that is appropriately identified, correctly documented, effectively managed, sufficiently resourced and adequately safeguarded.” KBA Programme Annual Report 2021

  • Incorporate KBAs into plans and strategies at all levels of government by making use of the existing KBA database of identified areas and use the principles of systematic conservation planning to direct the designation for areas of land, freshwater and marine waters into the national reserve system.

  • Access and collate management plans and actions from state and federal governments to ensure species and ecosystems are protected within KBAs.

  • Government plans and strategies could uptake the use of KBAs instead of ambiguous and development-centric terms e.g.: ‘Areas of High Environmental Value’.

Next steps

The Global Biodiversity Framework requires a whole of society approach to reaching targets and goals. This is also a sentiment that BirdLife Australia holds, as the core of the work of protecting birds is done by invaluable volunteers – or citizen scientists. BirdLife Australia has recently launched their new Bird Conservation Strategy, which has goals and targets that align with national and international aims. The KBA program is one such area that will contribute to the GBF and the main 30x30 goal to build on the conservation network. To do this, we need governments (national, state/territory, and local councils) to adequately resource strategies and plans, and also change structural processes that prohibit the protection of nature. We need organisations to work alongside one another towards a shared goal. And finally, we need the people that change the world – the volunteers – who contribute from the bottom-up to the conservation of species and ecosystems.

We need KBAs and other programs that can identify WHERE the most important places are for biodiversity. Especially in Australia, where the continent is considered megadiverse due to its high species richness and endemism. We also need systematic conservation planning so that decisions can be appropriately guided to improve where protected areas are placed in the process of achieving 30x30. We cannot have biodiversity if we don’t have the ecosystems and processes that underpin nature.

Australia has many strategies and plans – we now need to taken action and do the work.

Butterfly in a field of grass (Amanda Lilleyman)

 
Golo Maurernature, conservation, science, citizen science, birds, COP15, global biodiversity framework, IUCN, CBD, threatened species, Koala, Key Biodiversity Areas, KBAs