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Protecting biodiversity key to climate strategy
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THE land under our feet is ancient.
Minerals and organic material have mixed together over centuries and millennia to provide the bed upon which our food is grown. Land is the key to life and livelihoods.
As the global population increases and as climate change affects the availability of water, land will become even more important. Drylands hold a significant proportion of the world’s soil carbon stock, and land degradation contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable land management is a key climate change mitigation strategy.
Biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management will be critical for managing our ecosystems so that they can support improved water security for food production as well as be more resilient to climate change.
The 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, held 2010 in Japan, adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, along with 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which provide a framework for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration and sustainable land management.
In particular, I would like to highlight Biodiversity Target 15, which calls for enhancing the resilience of ecosystems and restoring at least 15 percent of degraded ecosystems, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation and to combating desertification.
Also relevant are: Target 5, which aims that by 2020, the rate of loss of all natural habitats, is at least halved and, where feasible, brought close to zero, and degradation and fragmentation is significantly reduced; Target 7, which calls for areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry to be managed sustainably; and, Target 14, which aims that by 2020, ecosystems that provide essential services and contribute to health, livelihoods and well-being, are restored.
The Rio Conventions, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification have many areas of convergence, the most significant being the work to conserve, restore and sustainably utilize dryland ecosystems. In fact, the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets provide strong bases for implementing the synergies between the conventions at the national level.
After celebrating the World Day to Combat Desertification on Tuesday, let us strive for strategies that integrate the management of land, water and biodiversity through sustaining ecosystem services. In this way we can combat desertification, help adapt to climate change and achieve the goals of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.
Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias is executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
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