Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

[ ] 9 Biodiversity — the variety of life on Earth — is a critical global common that we all must safeguard The 25th Anniversary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is an opportunity to celebrate how far we have come, and to reflect on what more needs to be done to achieve the objectives of the Convention and its Protocols — to conserve biodiversity, use it sustainably, and share its benefits equitably. I want to recognize the huge effort made by countries under the CBD to dramatically expand the coverage of protected areas both on land and in our oceans during the past 25 years. We would be in much worse shape today in the absence these actions. Many biomes of significant global importance, from the marine protected areas in Asia to the forests of the Amazon and the Congo Basin, have benefited immensely. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has been a financial mechanism for the CBD since 1996, and I am proud of the contribution that the GEF, in collaboration with the CBD and other partners, has made to help enable this progress. Since we started, the GEF has provided more than US$ 4.6 billion to support efforts to protect biodiversity through the implementation of more than 1,962 projects in over 155 countries. At the same time, it is clear that our progress is not enough. We are still losing biodiversity at alarming rates, and we are not on track to reach many of the 2020 Aichi Targets. We must recognize that our efforts have not been equal to the scale and speed of the forces that are driving biodiversity loss. Two years from now, in 2020, CBD COP-15 will be held in China, to agree new targets for biodiversity protection. Given the scale of the challenge before us, it is vital that the world be positioned to deliver on a set of targets that are both ambitious and meaningful.