Nature conservation - World Nature Summit: First projects can be financed
Exactly one year after the conclusion of the World Convention on Nature in Montreal (Canada), some scientists continue to speak of a milestone for global nature conservation. But there is also criticism. The necessary money is now available for the first projects. According to experts, the assessment for Germany is sober.
Nature is in a bad way
Biodiversity is shrinking massively. Drivers include population growth with the expansion of cities, the conversion of natural areas into pastures and farmland, environmental pollution and climate change. At the World Summit on Nature in Montreal on December 19, 2022, around 200 countries agreed on 23 goals to be achieved by 2030. These include the restoration of nature and more sustainable use. What progress has been made so far?
Initial funding in place
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) sees important progress in the financing of nature conservation. "The establishment of the Global Fund for Nature Conservation in August was an important step towards mobilizing the necessary resources," said David Ainsworth, spokesperson for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Almost 200 countries are parties to the 1993 Convention.
Germany paid 40 million euros into the fund in September. With contributions from Canada and the UK, more than 200 million dollars are in the pot and the fund can now begin its work. The first projects are to be decided at the beginning of 2024 and will be financed over the course of the year. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised a lot at the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2022: Germany would provide 1.5 billion euros annually for international biodiversity conservation from 2025.
The fund was one of the goals of the World Summit on Nature by 2030. Poorer countries are to be supported with 20 billion dollars annually by 2025 and 30 billion dollars annually by 2030. Further goals by 2030: at least 30 percent of the world's land and sea areas are to be placed under protection. How exactly the areas are to be "effectively conserved", however, remained vague. A further 30 percent of the areas are to be renatured. The threat to people and the environment from pesticides and chemicals is to be halved and environmentally harmful subsidies amounting to 500 billion dollars are to be reduced.
No jubilation among conservationists
The environmental organization WWF Germany sees little reason to celebrate. Not enough money is flowing to countries in the global South. "The solemnly adopted goals vanish into thin air if even a rich industrialized country like Germany does not provide the promised money," said Florian Titze, WWF expert for international politics. "Nature doesn't care about the budget and debt brake. In addition to the loss of trust, the earth's biodiversity hotspots, on which the livelihoods of all people depend, are at stake."
And in Germany?
Ecology professor Katrin Böhning-Gaese from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and Matthias Glaubrecht, Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Hamburg, continue to describe the agreement as a milestone overall. However, they see little progress in Germany.
"Currently, protection in German protected areas is generally not very effective," said Böhning-Gaese. "Only 25 percent of species and 30 percent of habitats in flora-fauna-habitat areas are in a good conservation status." Glaubrecht believes that Germany is struggling with the strict protection of nature. The discussion about the establishment of a Baltic Sea national park off Fehmarn has just shown this again.
"Even when it comes to reducing environmentally harmful subsidies - such as the abolition of reduced VAT on flights and meat - which Germany also committed to in Montreal, not much is happening apart from talk. I don't see any really effective initiative on the part of the German government to implement the goals of the global nature agreement in the near future."
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Source: www.stern.de
