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Sea turtle: The current IPBES report on biodiversity draws a sad conclusion
Photo: Jonas Gratzer / LightRocket / Getty Images
The global community will not meet any of the goals it has set for 2020 to protect biodiversity and nature.
This emerges from the fifth global report on the state of biological diversity published on Tuesday, which is issued by the World Council for Biodiversity IPBES.
In 2010, the 190 signatory states set themselves 20 goals to stop species extinction by 2020.
Among other things, the loss of natural habitats should be limited, overfishing stopped and the extinction of species on the red list prevented.
Too much money for fossil fuels
Admittedly, according to the UN report, progress has been made in nature conservation in the past ten years: Among other things, the deforestation rate has fallen by around a third compared to the previous decade.
Since 2000, the proportion of protected areas on land has increased from ten to 15 percent and on water from three to seven percent.
According to the UN report, however, the ongoing subsidies for fossil fuels are among the numerous threats to nature and biodiversity.
According to UN experts, they amount to the equivalent of 422 billion euros annually worldwide.
In the SPIEGEL interview, IPBES boss Anne Larigauderie explains how vague targets endanger environmental protection and how the corona crisis could benefit nature.
SPIEGEL:
Ms. Larigauderie, the world is talking about climate protection, but not about nature conservation.
Why is it not possible to attract the same attention to species extinction as to climate change?
Larigauderie:
I wouldn't put it that way.
Our warning last year that a million species are threatened with extinction reached the hearts of many people around the world.
The strengthening of movements such as Extinction Rebellion is also a sign that the biodiversity crisis is attracting more attention from society and especially from young people.
Greta Thunberg now speaks about it more often.
All of that is not enough, this movement must continue to grow, but it is a start.
SPIEGEL:
The United Nations' fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook was presented on Tuesday.
Can you give an example of an important finding?
Icon: enlarge Photo: Patrick Tonissen / IISD / ENB / Mike Muzurakis
Anne Larigauderie: The French biologist is chairwoman of the UN organization Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPBES for short.
Larigauderie:
The report comes to the conclusion that, fortunately, global spending on nature conservation has doubled over the past ten years - but the around 80 billion dollars that are spent on this are a
piece of cake compared
to the huge sums of subsidies with which environmentally harmful behavior such as Overfertilization or overfishing is rewarded.
It is about many hundreds of billions of dollars that directly serve the destruction of nature plus hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for fossil fuels.
We have to change that.
SPIEGEL:
Many politicians consider spending on nature conservation to be a luxury that you can only afford if you have no other problems.
Larigauderie:
That couldn't be more wrong.
It's not about luxury, but about existential issues.
SPIEGEL:
So far, the global nature conservation goals have not been taken very seriously.
Ten years ago, at the UN conference in Nagoya, states set 20 goals by 2020, including an end to environmentally harmful subsidies and the creation of huge protected areas.
So far none of this has been achieved.
What went wrong?
Larigauderie:
The previous goals were just too vague.
The experts in the governments then spent a few years debating what exactly is meant and how progress can be measured at all.
SPIEGEL:
What does that mean for new nature conservation goals that will be decided at a UN conference in 2021 and that will apply until 2030?
Larigauderie:
We need more specific guidelines, such as that 15 percent of the destroyed ecosystems must be restored or 30 percent of the land area be designated as protected areas.
However, it is crucial that there is enough money available to achieve this and to document progress.
Many countries do not even know where they stand in terms of nature conservation.
It would be like not knowing how much CO2 your own country is releasing, but wanting to achieve climate protection goals.
SPIEGEL:
A lack of monitoring is likely to be one of the reasons why species protection is lacking.
Larigauderie:
The decisive factor is the question of political will.
It just wasn't there before.
Now we are slowly getting through with the message that the protection of the diversity of life is not about the harmless goal of being nicer to nature, but that it is about our existence: world nutrition falters when pollinator insects disappear and coral reefs as nurseries of fish are omitted.
Our drinking water is at risk if there is a lack of forests in catchment areas, we endanger our health if we continue to bring unknown viruses into circulation through clearing the rainforest.
SPIEGEL:
The big UN conference on new global goals for the protection of biodiversity should actually take place in China in October 2020, but it had to be postponed because of the corona pandemic.
How big is the damage that it causes?
Larigauderie:
As with climate protection, valuable time is lost.
But the conference is only being postponed, not canceled, and we are betting that it will take place in 2021.
I also observe that the pandemic is making many people think, because experts draw a direct connection between how we humans intervene in nature and how infectious diseases spread from animals to us humans.
SPIEGEL:
Has this connection between a pandemic and the destruction of nature been proven?
Larigauderie:
The World Biodiversity Council will comment on this in its own statement in mid-October.
We have brought together 30 of the world's leading experts on this topic and will present the state of knowledge.
It is scientifically clear that a large part of the infectious diseases of animals have spread to humans - and in many cases this is preceded by forest destruction, road construction and the fragmentation of habitats, especially in the tropics.
Such disruptions can cause viruses that have never harmed anyone to suddenly find their way to a single person - and then around the world.
SPIEGEL:
And you think that is why politicians will take nature conservation more seriously?
Larigauderie: At
least I very much hope so, because scientifically everything speaks for it.
SPIEGEL:
How do you rate the previous European commitment to species protection?
Larigauderie:
With the "Green Deal", the EU has presented a pleasingly ambitious plan in which biodiversity plays a major role, also with regard to future agricultural policy.
All the ingredients are on the table so that Germany and the whole EU could become global leaders.
Above all, I am counting on the German EU Presidency going ahead here.
SPIEGEL:
Which new global goals for 2030 do you think are essential?
Larigauderie:
measurably reducing the use of pesticides, effectively preserving forests, preventing pollution with plastic and heavy metals - these are some of the points that will be extremely important for the next few years.
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