Good afternoon to members of the press and those online. My thanks to members of the press for joining us to cover the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species. My thanks also to you Minister and the government of Uzbekistan for such gracious hosting.
Today, the UNEP-hosted secretariat for the Convention on Migratory Species is launching The State of the World’s Migratory Species Report, which really does lend urgency to negotiations at this very meeting. This is the first-ever comprehensive assessment of migratory species, and it shows how our behaviour – unsustainable human activities – are jeopardizing the future of these species, and by extension the future of other species and humanity itself.
Some 44 per cent of migratory species listed under the Convention on Migratory Species are showing a population decline and 22 per cent are threatened by extinction – a figure that rises to 97 per cent for CMS-listed fish. This extinction risk grows for all migratory species globally.
These worrying trends were already identified some time back by our friends at the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which members of the press may or not be aware is the biodiversity twin to the IPCC in terms of science. Those drivers are indeed critical – they are overexploitation, they are degradation and fragmentation of land, they are climate change, pollution, and introduction of invasive species. And they do have profound impacts. These drivers are generally the primary causes of biodiversity loss, and of course biodiversity forms part of what we heard again this morning, that triple planetary crisis. The crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste.
The global community now has an opportunity to translate what the science tells us and what is included in this report into action, and this should start here and now at COP-14. Such actions really do matter, because migratory species are such beautiful, complex creatures that, once gone, will not return. We have to ask ourselves whether we have the right to be in charge of that catastrophe, which is happening before our very eyes. The actions that we take will matter, whether on the land, in the sea or in the air that migratory species traverse. We must ensure that we maintain the ecosystems that they live in.
There are specific decisions and issues on the table at this very COP that could make a difference and must make a difference. These include increasing ecological connectivity, tackling the illegal killings and taking of birds, reducing noise and chemical pollution in marine and other environments, and ensuring that we pay careful attention to commitments and obligations when we are considering potential deep-sea prospecting and mining. But we also need to look beyond individual country decisions to the bigger picture.
Migratory species go where they must, without regard for lines that we have drawn on pieces of paper, what we call the human boundaries. That is why the theme of this COP is Nature Knows no Borders. To be effective, we have to look beyond the jurisdiction of the environment ministries, and beyond the jurisdiction of individual nations and beyond the jurisdiction of single agreements. We have to look at whole-of-government, whole-of-society, and whole-of-world approaches. That includes engaging with Indigenous Peoples, who are often the chief stewards of biodiversity globally.
It is critical for the CMS Secretariat and Parties to work closely with other multilateral environmental agreements and instruments, such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, but also the Global Framework on Chemicals, and of course agreements on desertification, climate change and the upcoming plastic pollution instrument.
We cannot protect migratory species without multilateralism, unity and transboundary cooperation. So, I am calling on all countries, all parties and all communities to work together, including at the upcoming United Nations Environment Assembly, to protect migratory species so that they survive and thrive. Because when we do, humanity will also survive and thrive.
