Countries adopt multibillion-dollar fund to protect nature
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[August 26, 2023]
By Gloria Dickie and Isla Binnie
(Reuters) - Environmental leaders from 185 countries gathered in
Vancouver, Canada, on Thursday to adopt a multibillion-dollar fund to
support global conservation, and the United Nations called for
contributions to help protect 30% of land and coastal areas by 2030.
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Local boy Ratusela Waqanaceva, 14, wades
through seawater flooding over an ineffective sea wall at high tide, as
the community experiences flooding in Serua Village, Fiji, July 15,
2022. As the community runs out of ways to adapt to the rising Pacific
Ocean, the 80 villagers face the painful decision whether to move.
REUTERS/Loren Elliott/File Photo |
The
meeting comes eight months after governments agreed to the
Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — which some have
called the "Paris Agreement for Nature", invoking the landmark
2015 U.N. pact to tackle climate change. More than a million
species are estimated to be facing extinction, according to the
U.N.
One of the framework's 23 targets is to help mobilize public and
private sector players to funnel $200 billion per year to
conservation initiatives by 2030, with developed countries
contributing at least $20 billion of this every year by 2025.
"We are off to a good start," said David Cooper, acting
executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological
Diversity. "We now call for further pledges from countries and
from other sources so that the first projects under the new fund
can be launched next year."
The fund has so far fallen short of the $200 million U.S.
dollars it needs to become fully operational by December, as
required by the World Bank as a trustee.
Canada on Thursday said it would put in 200 million Canadian
dollars ($147 million) and the United Kingdom contributed 10
million pounds ($13 million).
"The time for half-measures has passed," said Oscar Soria,
director of the non-profit Avaaz. "Surely donors can come up
with the paltry $40 million" needed to get the fund up and
running.
The fund launched on Thursday is managed within the Global
Environment Facility (GEF) — a mechanism established under the
U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity and the U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change which has provided more than $23
billion to thousands of projects over the past 30 years.
The world's least developed countries and small island states
will take priority and receive more than a third of the funds,
with a target for as much as 20% to go to projects led by
indigenous people and local communities, the GEF said in a
statement.
(Reporting by Gloria Dickie in London, additional reporting by
Isla Binnie in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Giles
Elgood)
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