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Biodiversity COP 16: “Making peace with nature”

The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16) was suspended on the morning of 2 November 2024 but not before countries agreed on an expanded role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in saving biodiversity and a groundbreaking agreement on the operationalization of a new global mechanism to share benefits from digital genetic information.

A fisherman standing in his boat while fishing at in a lake, India.

COP 16 will resume at a later date and venue to complete the agenda.

As a measure of progress, the Protected Planet Report 2024, launched at COP 16 by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), reveals that while some progress has been made toward the global goal of protecting 30 per cent of the Earth by 2030, efforts must accelerate to meet this critical target.

This commitment is referred to as ‘Target 3’ and is one of four goals and 23 targets to tackle the global nature crisis under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Currently, only 17.6 per cent of land and inland waters and 8.4% of ocean and coastal areas are within documented protected and conserved zones. The report highlights the need for swift and concerted action to preserve biodiversity and sustain ecosystems globally.

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