The Governments of Nigeria and Gabon are making headway to increase financing for the expansion and improved management of protected areas in Africa using using traditional knowledge as a global resource critical for all people.
This call was made Monday during the inaugural IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) which is taking place in Kigali, Rwanda. In a statement issued in Kigali, both activists and decision makers warn that the natural world is disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Latest estimates show that global species loss is estimated to be up to 1,000 times higher than the naturally occurring extinction rate and one million plant and animal species now face extinction, many within decades.
To address the crisis facing nature, nations, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, environmental organizations, and businesses are actively working to develop a new framework to guide biodiversity conservation for the next decade, known as the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), a global agreement seeking to curtail the accelerating nature crisis, which will be finalized at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to take place in Montreal, Canada, from 5 to 17 December 2022.
However, experts argue that without adequate financing, actions to address the biodiversity crisis will not be possible, and this critical global agreement may be elusive.
The Africa Nature Finance Forum brings together government leaders and experts to discuss how Africa can use its historical and cultural tradition of protecting ecosystems and biodiversity, support the financing of biodiversity, and leverage increased financing from donor countries around the world.
Given that 70-90% of the cost of protecting or conserving at least 30% of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030 (a proposal known as 30×30) would be focused on low- and middle-income countries, the Forum will underscore the need for high-income countries, development banks, philanthropists, and the private sector.
The main purpose is to dramatically increase their support for the expansion and improved management of protected areas in Africa, it said. (END)
