For the important areas for life

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The Amazon forest in Candeias do Jamari on August 25 (Credit: Victor Moriyama / Getty Images)

Editor's Note: Roberto Troya, Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean at WWF (World Wildlife Fund), is an expert in international environmental policy, with solid experience in strategic planning and management. He has a master's degree in law from the Harvard Law School and a doctorate from the Catholic University of Ecuador. The opinions expressed in this column are exclusive to the author.

(CNN Spanish) - Twelve years after the II Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on protected areas, held in Bariloche (Argentina), the countries of Latin America meet again. This time, in Lima (Peru), to analyze the state of these spaces of invaluable importance for the life of numerous species, including the human.

The III Congress of Protected Areas of Latin America and the Caribbean (Caplac), which will take place from October 14 to 17, is held in a context of chiaroscuros: of alarming concern about fire in the Amazon as well as in other regions of Bolivia and Paraguay, and encouragement, because of the progress in the region during the last decade, which places this area of ​​the planet as an example of a will to follow in other latitudes.

The flames in the Amazon caused the world to set its sights on the largest tropical forest in the world, a habitat of 10% of the planet's biodiversity and home to more than 34 million people, including nearly 500 indigenous peoples. Kilometers of that territory are in protected areas.

The consequences are still unpredictable but we can infer that they will aggravate the planetary environmental crisis.

On the other side of the forest are the results obtained by Latin America according to its commitment to Aichi Target 11 (1): most countries cover or are very close to fulfilling 17% of their protection in land areas and waters continental and 10% in coastal-marine areas. Half of the region's protected land area is in Brazilian territory and the coastal-marine protected area is mainly represented by Brazil, Chile and Mexico.

Since 2008, the number of areas created in Latin America increased by 37% for land and 33 percent for coastal-marine. Protected land area increased by 12% (540,000 km2) and coastal-marine 83% (2,800,000 km2).

Even with the fulfillment of what was promised, there is concern about the global deterioration of nature due to human activity, which unfortunately supports the theory of an eventual mass extinction, the sixth in the history of the planet. This is warned by the WWF 2018 Living Planet Report (2) and the 2019 IPBES Report (3) .

2020 is a decisive year, as the environmental commitments reached will be decisive for the future of the planet and humanity. 2020 is the last opportunity to reverse the trend of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, prevent the consequences of climate change and move the world towards sustainable development, which includes a new global action plan to stop and reverse the loss of global biodiversity.

The challenges

Around protected and conserved areas, the region faces significant challenges, including insufficient long-term financial support for the application of appropriate and equitable governance models, the lack of effective management and the increase in degradation, reduction events and cancellation of the protection of these areas, which can intensify the loss of biodiversity, deforestation and carbon emissions.

The III Latin American and Caribbean Congress of Protected Areas is the ideal forum for the exchange of experiences, the debate on the formulation and implementation of public policies, research and academia, thanks to the active participation of community leaders, politicians, specialists, authorities and Civil society organizations. It is also a key space to articulate efforts and highlight the value for the population of protected natural areas and their biodiversity, make visible existing local conservation practices and, above all, generate the necessary political commitment in Latin America, en route to the New Agreement for Nature and People by 2020.

Why is it important to conserve these areas? For the benefits for food security, the provision of water for human consumption, the conservation of ecological processes, the generation of electricity, education and recreation, among others.

From the III Latin American and Caribbean Congress of Protected Areas, the Lima Declaration will have to emanate, an opportunity for actors in the region to position protected areas within the broader objectives of sustainable development, climate change and respect for rights Indigenous peoples and local communities to participate in the decisions and sustainable use of the lands they historically inhabit through practical, innovative, and replicable solutions that harmonize the objectives of conservation and human development.

In these four days of talks and debate, Latin America and the Caribbean must show their decision to defend biodiversity in a region of more than 600 million inhabitants, and promote a New Agreement for Nature and People, which mobilizes millions to end species extinction, halve the ecological footprint of production and consumption and protect and conserve 30% of land, freshwater and ocean areas and effectively manage an additional 20%.

(1) The AICHI goals are 20, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and grouped into five strategic objectives set by the government representatives of 196 signatory countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) during COP 10 on biodiversity which was carried out in the province of Aichi, Japan in 2010. These goals, which must be met in 2020, are part of the Strategic Plan for Biological Diversity 2011-2020 that aims to stop the loss of nature: the life support of all life forms on the planet, particularly ours.

(2) Latin America has suffered the most dramatic decline in vertebrates in the world with an 89% loss of 1,040 populations of 689 species studied since 1970. These populations have had an annual decline of 4.8% in an area corresponding to the biogeographic region of the Neotropical, which extends from central Mexico to Patagonia and where there are three of the most biodiverse countries in the world: Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

(3) Biological diversity - the essential variety of life forms on Earth - continues to decline in all regions of the world and significantly reduces the ability of nature to contribute to people's well-being. This alarming trend threatens the economies, livelihoods, food security and quality of life of people around the world.

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