A historic global agreement on biological diversity was reached
A United Nations conference has reached an agreement to protect 30 percent of land and sea areas considered important for biodiversity. It aims to save thousands of species of animals and plants from possible extinction
On Monday, December 19, negotiators at the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity signed an agreement, which is being described as a historic global effort to protect land and oceans.
The most important part of the agreement is that it commits to protect 30 percent of land and sea areas considered important for biodiversity by the end of this decade. So far, only 17 percent of terrestrial and 10 percent of marine areas have been declared protected for biodiversity
The agreement was reached a day before the end of the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity or COP15 in Montreal, Canada. The approval of the agreement was announced by Chinese Environment Minister Huang Ronqiao, who is leading the meeting.
The announcement came shortly after a member of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s delegation objected to the text. Earlier, some African countries had objected to the text of the agreement in this regard.
What else is included in the contract?
Under this global agreement, 200 billion dollars will be spent for biodiversity by 2030. Similarly, another $500 billion would likely be raised by phasing out or reforming subsidies such as food or fuel.
The agreement also stipulates that more funds will be provided to low-income or poor countries so that they can better protect nature. To achieve the agreed goals, these funds will be at least 20 billion dollars per year by 2025, and they will be increased to 30 billion dollars per year by 2030.
In 2019, a UN report warned that one million species of plants and animals will become extinct in the next few decades.
How harmful are travel activities to the natural environment?
Traveling gives us an opportunity to learn about other countries and places, but it is also harmful to the environment. Can you make your commute more environmentally friendly by changing your mode of transportation?
This winter apparently saw more extreme weather events. That is why every new report on climate change results in repeated warnings as well as calls for urgent action to improve the situation. It feels like humanity is heading towards an abyss and yet we cannot stop the journey that contributes to this destruction. Unfortunately, every vacation has a direct impact on the work environment
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, eight to ten percent of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) is caused by the travel and tourism sector. Needless to say, the longer the route, the higher the CO2 emissions.
According to the Global Carbon Budget Report, mankind emitted 36.6 billion tons of CO2 this year. In 1950, this level of emissions was only 6 billion metric tons and in 1990, it reached 22 billion metric tons.
The choice of means of transportation can make a difference during the trip. According to a study released by the German Federal Environment Agency, the general statement that “train travel is more environmentally friendly than car travel” is not always true.
A large carbon footprint
All means of travel whether a bus, train, plane, ship or car require energy to run, usually from fossil sources such as oil and gas. When this fuel burns, it releases climate-damaging carbon dioxide. It warms the environment. The transportation sector is one of the major contributors to man-made climate change.
Bennett Grimm, head of tourist mobility research at the Institute for Tourism Research (NIT) in Northern Europe, says that now that more people are aware of the climate-damaging aspects of travel, does this lead to sustainable travel? Has there been a substantial increase? Certainly not! A desire to see the world and an interest in climate-friendly behavior often outweigh the desire to travel, says Grimm.
According to an analysis of 2022 trips by Germany’s Holiday and Travel Research Association, 55.1 million trips of five or more days were made in 2021 and 44.8 million short-term trips.
For longer trips, 34 percent of tourists chose to travel by air. Many people in Germany already know that air travel causes the most carbon dioxide emissions, yet they rarely change the way they travel.
Has awareness changed travel?
Severin Langlet from France admits that she is not a very environmentally conscious traveler as she often travels between Berlin and Paris by plane. She says she is looking forward to 2023 when a new train line will connect Paris and Berlin and she will choose it over the air.
Families with children also have additional considerations when choosing how to travel on vacation. “We usually go on holiday in a rental car,” says Anne Colliers from Berlin. One of the reasons for choosing a car is that we carry a large amount of luggage with us
Similarly, for Julian Schrogel and his family from Frankfurt, going on a summer vacation by plane is not an option. If they travel by air, it is only for journeys of more than a month, Shrogal says.
The future of eco-friendly travel
Travel certainly also generates income for those involved in the tourism industry. However, tourists can revise their travel methods keeping in mind the emissions of harmful gases produced by travel. During this time they can stay longer in one place instead of going on many small trips.
Bennett-Graeme says that seeing travel as part of an experience and going on vacation can be a fun experience. Because according to them, every place offers something unique in any case.
However, climate-friendly travel should not be left to individuals alone. “It’s important to talk about transport infrastructure and not just hold individuals accountable,” says Felix Kreutzig of the Technical University of Berlin. There should be a climate-neutral, reliable offering for eco-friendly travel.” He believes that governments and cities also have a responsibility to take steps towards making travel eco-friendly.
Nature and Environment Global
What is biopiracy?
The topic of biopiracy has taken center stage at the ongoing Nature Conservation Conference in Montreal, where developing countries are seeking funding for inventions based on ancient knowledge.
At the ongoing International Conference on Nature Conservation in Montreal, Canada, the developing countries’ position is that every such scientific invention or development, which is based on ancient knowledge or natural resources, should share the profits obtained from them.
Research on drugs, genetically modified crops and other products is really nothing new because it is all borrowed from somewhere. Traditional ancient knowledge or biodiversity, obtained from it and used without giving any formal credit or compensation, is termed as biopiracy.
Such cases appear throughout human history. However, the Spanish, British and other world empires frequently made huge profits from the natural resources of various occupied territories, such as coffee, cotton, tea, spices and rubber.
Although most of these occupied territories were later liberated, biopiracy continued. Researchers and major international companies in rich countries continue to seize the natural resources of poor countries and profit from them by keeping their intellectual rights in their name. These included biotech, agriculture and pharmaceutical companies. One of them is a multi-billion dollar industry.
Although the World Trade Organization agreement extends intellectual property coverage to some plants and animals, these guarantees are not always effective.
For example, the American multinational WR Grace patented an organic fungicide product made from the neem plant under its name. A case was established regarding the importance of the neem plant in the traditional wisdom of Indian farming. The case was eventually won by the Indian government and thus this sixty million dollar a year patent case came to an end after decades of fighting.
The Nagoya Protocol mandates access to all products based on biological diversity or genetic resources to be monitored, while benefits derived from them are to be shared in an ‘adequate and equitable’ manner. . The agreement has been in force since October 2014 and has been ratified by 138 countries, including Canada, the United States and Russia.
At the ongoing COP 15 Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, this topic is at the fore, with genetic data being asked to be part of the framework of the Digital Forum or Digital Sequence (DSI).
A number of African countries are of the view that they will accept the new biodiversity framework only if the benefit-sharing from scientific developments like DSI is included in the framework.
Environment Global protection hundreds of defenders sacrificing their lives for the environment
Over the past decade, more than 1,700 environmental and land conservation activists have been killed, most of them indigenous. All these people lost their lives protecting the natural environment
When the Indonesian government decided to build the new capital, environmentalists raised the alarm. Jakarta is the first major city in the world to lose its capital status due to the climate crisis. But critics say the government’s decision to place the mace on Borneo’s lush island could expose the archipelago to further environmental damage and displace indigenous communities from their ancestral lands.
Plans for a new capital in Indonesia are recent, but the battle for land rights is an old story for the local Buren people. In 2020, three local farmers were jailed for harvesting land. They said that a palm oil firm had stolen this land from them. One of the farmers, Hermans bin Bison, died in police custody shortly after his arrest
Bison is one of the many environmental guards on global, who saved their areas to save their areas due to industrialized cells or to protect the environment. Business groups, criminal groups and governments have long been displaced by local communities from their native land. These controversies are more likely to be located in other competitions than other activities. At least 613 local workers have been killed during the last decade according to the data published by the Global Vitan’s Global Vitan, the environmental and human rights. Human rights groups and organizations have recorded mortality of active activists for more than 1,700 environmental and earth protection between about 60 countries between 2012 and 2021. More than 35% of these deadlines have been identified as locals. But the number of real deaths is even more. Details like radius were not explained in some five percent of the documents documented through Global Vitan. Independent press, free monitoring and lack of a strong civil society can also be a droplete in reporting. Some countries have a long tradition to record such attacks and the areas have been established for better monitoring of such events. During the last three years, the death rate of local workers was more than the last years. Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru and Philippines were the most deadly countries for its native residents. A localist’s award for the rights of local people and the resolution of the local people’s relevant, Antonio De Olivira, said, “Local residents have been considered a barrier for the long run and the whole world is fought in the whole world.
He said that the fight for the native lands of these local people is the main motive behind this violence. Although it is not always clear in the statistics, land conflicts appear to be behind more than half of the deaths recorded globally in the last decade. In many cases, the causes are unknown. According to Global Witness, these conflicts are often related to land ownership and the cultivation of illegal crops.
18% of deaths were related to mining and mineral extraction and this was the most dangerous sector. This was followed by 10 percent in agribusiness disputes, while the death rate in cases of illegal deforestation was 9 percent.
Sites of deadly violence
Indigenous communities in Latin America have long struggled for rights to their lands. This region has been consistently ranked as the deadliest for environmental and land conservationists over the years. Colombia is the most dangerous country for indigenous activists, with 135 indigenous community defenders killed over the past decade.
At the other end of the world, the Philippines also saw an increase in the number of local residents killed between 2012 and 2021. Of the 270 environmental leaders killed in the Southeast Asian country, 114 were local.
Global Witness spokeswoman Marina Komandoli told DW that many Asian, Middle Eastern and African countries have not reported any deaths of local environmentalists. But that doesn’t mean they’re havens for environmentalists, according to the spokesperson. Rather, it is due to the non-registration of such incidents of murder in these countries due to several reasons
Who is the protector of the protectors?
Human rights activists around the world, including in the Philippines, are pushing for a legal framework to change this alarming reality. In this context, efforts are being made to pass the Environmental Defense Bill in Manila. Introduced in 2020, the bill is still pending in the Philippine Congress. The proposed law would guarantee the protection of environmental defenders and prosecution of those who commit lethal and non-lethal violence against them.
Regional agreements elsewhere are paving the way for conservation efforts by environmentalists. The Escazu Agreement is a landmark agreement in Latin America and the Caribbean that entered into force in 2021. It became the first legally binding agreement to guarantee access to environmental information and to require investigations into environmental casualties.
So far, several countries in the region have not ratified the agreement, including Brazil. But that may change after left-wing leader Lula de Silva’s recent victory in the presidential election against Bolsonaro. In his first public statement, de Silva pledged to reduce deforestation in the Amazon and protect the rights of indigenous peoples. But merely ratifying the agreement is not enough. Other countries such as Mexico and Colombia have done so but are not enforcing it effectively.
For Antonio de Oliveira of the Indigenous Missionary Council of Brazil, environmental activists are at the forefront of preventing climate change and environmental destruction, and the importance of protecting them is clear. “These indigenous leaders are not just fighting for their territory or a tree or a river, they are fighting for the whole planet and a better life,” said de Oliveira.
This report has been taken from different places by Mufti Ziaul Islam Qasmi and has been prepared by you. Tell the world how we should be active to protect nature. Let us all protect nature together and prevent natural disasters. Provide equipment 