‘Govts paying less attention on biodiversity crisis’

Director General of IUCN, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, said in a statement that despite increasing recognition of biodiversity crisis, the response from government does not in any way equal the magnitude of the calamity.
The director said this year’s biodiversity talks ended with a renewed sense of urgency to meet the 2020 biodiversity targets.
Marton-Lefèvre said many creative and interesting responses to the biodiversity crisis have been showcased, highlighting how nature can provide solutions to so many of society’s challenges.
“We will need to see a massive scaling up of the good work underway in the remaining years of this UN Decade for Biodiversity in order to have an impact,” she added.
She also said the released Global Biodiversity Outlook 4 at the opening of the meeting showed that countries need to respond by strengthening biodiversity conservation measures and accelerating implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity to bring about an improvement in the status of biodiversity.
She said the plan, which includes a set of 20 biodiversity targets to be met by 2020, was agreed upon by most of the world’s governments at the UN Biodiversity summit in Nagoya in 2010.
“It represents the only global unified agenda to tackle ongoing biodiversity loss. This year’s meeting showed that the response from governments has been ‘business as usual’ and many countries are still far from fulfilling the ambitions of that plan,” Marton-Lefèvre said.
The conference also recognised the critical link between the loss of habitat and the emergence of infectious diseases such as Ebola, which is plaguing many parts of the planet, pledging to do more to make such links clear to the wider world.
The report states that biodiversity loss is linked to many of society’s ills, including increased frequency of natural disasters, climate change and food insecurity, says Jane Smart, Global Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group and Director, Global Species Programme.
She said: “It is imperative that governments place biodiversity conservation far higher up the political agenda and convert the fine words and pledges made at this meeting into tangible action for the sake of life on earth.”
Countries were urged to effectively “mainstream” biodiversity into other sectors, national development policies and planning processes, and to reiterate commitments for a substantial increase in funding for the implementation of the strategic plan.