Biodiversity: World Summit on Nature agrees on final declaration

After around two weeks of negotiations, the participants at the World Nature Summit in Montreal, Canada, agreed on a final declaration on Monday.

Among other things, the approximately 200 states set themselves the goal of protecting at least 30 percent of land and sea areas by 2030 (30x30).

They also want to spend more money on protecting biodiversity.

After the adoption, cheers erupted at the plenary session at the Montreal Convention Center, which had previously been pushed back time and again.

Organizers, scientists and representatives of non-governmental organizations had hoped that a landmark agreement on species protection could be passed.

"Even if not all expectations of the new agreement could be met, the adopted goals now offer a great opportunity to initiate the trend reversal that is so urgently needed to overcome the biodiversity crisis and thus to secure the livelihoods of current and future generations," said Georg Schwede from the Campaign for Nature, which observed the negotiations on the ground.

The agreement also has the potential to strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities with the implementation of 30x30 and other goals.

This would be a paradigm shift for the protection of nature.

The 15th World Summit on Nature, which also goes by the abbreviation COP15, was originally supposed to take place in China in 2020, but was then postponed and divided due to the ongoing pandemic situation there.

The first part of the negotiations took place last October, mainly online, in Kunming, China.