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Spotlight on nature and biodiversity

Nature is humanity’s lifeline. Human health, food, economies and well-being depend on nature. Yet nature is in crisis. One million of the world’s estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction. Meanwhile, ecosystem degradation is affecting the well-being of 40 per cent of the global population.

The spotlight on nature and biodiversity highlights updates from around the UN System, from partners and others, helping to call attention to the need for a just, prosperous and sustainable future for all.

18 Sep 2023 15:31

A radical shift to working with nature

A screen display
Photo: UNEP/Miranda Grant

"We need an urgent and radical shift: from using nature, to working with nature. To creating nature-centred economies that understand the difference between price and value, between price and cost," said Inger Andersen, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, at the Nature Driving Economic Transformation event in New York. The event was convened at the SDG Action Weekend of the SDG Summit at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Andersen laid out three key steps that are needed to live in harmony with nature:

Full speech here.

04 Sep 2023 17:02

IPBES Invasive Alien Species Assessment

IPBES Invasive Species Assessment

The severe global threat posed by invasive alien species is underappreciated, underestimated, and often unacknowledged. According to a major new report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), more than 37,000 alien species have been introduced by many human activities to regions and biomes around the world. This conservative estimate is now rising at unprecedented rates. More than 3,500 of these are harmful invasive alien species – seriously threatening nature, nature’s contributions to people and good quality of life. 

Approved on Saturday, 2 September, in Bonn, Germany, by representatives of the 143 member States of IPBES, the Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control finds that alongside dramatic changes to biodiversity and ecosystems, the global economic cost of invasive alien species exceeded $423 billion annually in 2019, with costs having at least quadrupled every decade since 1970.

Full article

25 Aug 2023 00:23

New global biodiversity fund launched in Vancouver

GBF

The Global Environment Facility’s Seventh Assembly in Canada has launched the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund to support nature restoration.

The fund will provide the resources needed to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to halt & reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

The new fund was ratified and launched at the GEF Assembly in Vancouver, where two countries announced initial contributions to start its capitalization. This included 200 million Canadian dollars from Canada and 10 million pounds from the United Kingdom.

Full article

17 Aug 2023 18:23

Fostering collaboration to address environmental challenges in Africa

A tree at sunset
Photo: Unsplash/Halima Bouchouicha

“It is a great injustice that Africa, which has contributed the least to climate change, is poised to suffer the most.”

UNEP Deputy Executive Director Elizabeth Mrema calls on the global community to provide greater support in tackling the triple planetary crisis at the 19th session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Full speech

16 Aug 2023 16:09

Amid worry for the planet, GEF Assembly to propel bold collaboration for nature

Aerial view photography of green leaf trees
Photo: Unsplash/Spencer Watson

The Seventh Assembly of the Global Environment Facility, which takes place in Vancouver from 22-26 August, will stand out for its focus on the dangers of the present.

Environment leaders from 185 countries are gathering at a time of record-high land and ocean temperatures, out-of-control wildfires, and deadly flooding even in areas unaccustomed to weather extremes: a succession of disasters that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as heralding the arrival of “an era of global boiling.”

A highlight of the Assembly agenda will be the launch of the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), which will provide a boost to developing countries’ investments in nature and support Indigenous Peoples and local communities in their pursuit of the ambitious goals agreed to at the Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 in December 2022.

Full story