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Bridging the needs of conservation and local communities

With a vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050, the Global Biodiversity Framework is historic. It includes a 30 by 30 target, meaning 30 percent of land and water to be under biodiversity protection by 2030, and calls for the adoption of innovative modalities for conservation.

Regan Pairojmahakij (The Jakarta Post)
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Bangkok
Mon, October 28, 2024

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Bridging the needs of conservation and local communities Cleaning up: Volunteers collect a rusted shopping cart from the sea during an operation to protect Aegean biodiversity from waste, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos in his handout photo released on Nov. 30, 2019 by the Aegean Rebreath. (Handout/The Aegean Rebreath/AFP/File)

T

he United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of Parties (COP) in Cali, Colombia, COP16, provides an opportunity to move closer to achieving the world’s biodiversity conservation goals. This year’s COP will follow both the UN Climate Change and Desertification COPs as the last in a triad of "super" COP events taking place in close succession. It follows from the watershed COP15, where the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted.

With a vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050, the Global Biodiversity Framework is historic. It includes a 30 by 30 target, meaning 30 percent of land and water to be under biodiversity protection by 2030, and calls for the adoption of innovative modalities for conservation. Given the realities of land use, achieving these ambitious goals to scale up conservation cannot rely on traditional strategies of declaring new national parks and protected areas. "Other Effective Conservation Measures," or OECMs are among the conservation approaches being considered and actively promoted by the global community.

The OECM concept is distinct from the "Protected Area" or PA concept. While conservation is a primary objective of PAs, with OECMs, conservation is not necessarily a primary objective, but rather an outcome. Within the OECM framework, land or marine environments that are not already protected via traditional biodiversity conservation mechanisms can be more formally acknowledged for their biodiversity protection role. This opens up possibilities for a range of existing land management options to be folded into the protection and conservation spheres. Depending on national-level standards and interpretation of OECMs, community forests, indigenous community conserved areas, private parks, marshes and other areas may be designated as OECMs.

Since COP15, countries have advanced efforts to develop more detailed national-level criteria and policy guidance as to which areas may qualify as OECMs. In Asia, these discussions are at various stages, with countries such as Japan, the Philippines and Thailand being more advanced in the development of their national OECM criteria.

These efforts are taking place in the context of a world grappling with mounting biodiversity challenges. Globally, 96 percent of mammal biomass comprises humans and livestock, with wildlife making up only the remaining 4 percent. Biodiversity levels have plummeted since 1970, with the average size of wildlife populations declining by 73 percent.

The biodiversity crisis is a global crisis, and one that is inseparable from other looming challenges such as climate change. In economic terms, biodiversity loss could reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by an estimated US$2.7 trillion annually by 2030.

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It is important to remember that in some countries, the term "biodiversity conservation" continues to be associated with "fortress conservation" approaches that have led to the evictions of indigenous peoples and a raft of other human rights violations. While there is still important progress to be made, attitudes have shifted significantly over the last 30 years. The value of biodiversity and the contributions of lands and waters traditionally used and managed by indigenous peoples and local communities are better understood and acknowledged in most countries. However, there are still complex and sometimes opposing views in the context of OECM designation. Lessons learned from the fortress vs. inclusive protected area debate are relevant here and should inform our way forward.

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