For Immediate Release: Protecting Nature: The Road to Kunming

World legislators meet virtually tomorrow to press for action ahead of the

UN BIODIVERSITY CONVENTION (COP15) to be held in Kunming, China, but postponed by the Covid pandemic.

Wednesday 28th October is the day Kunming COP15 was supposed to conclude a global agreement on actions for a new decade of targets and measures to halt the devastating rate of species extinction.

Instead, the Parliamentary Chair of ICCF UK and the APPG on International Conservation, Barry Gardiner MP, will host a virtual summit of global legislators that will press governments to ensure the success of Kunming by committing to ambitious conservation targets, adequate financing and strong action.

Mr Gardiner said,

“The natural world that sustains human life is growing ever thinner. Scientists tell us that a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction within our lifetime. Next year, two conferences – in Kunming and Glasgow – will set out the path our planet will take to 2050. We can choose to continue with the chaos of a climate and environmental catastrophe or decide on transformative change that will create sustainable economic prosperity.

The world has suffered economically and emotionally from Covid 19. The simple fact is it is a zoonotic disease that arose through our abuse of other species in the natural world, just as SARS, Ebola, and HIV did before it. We need to act now to restore the natural balance. This conference is about how we do that.”

Participants include:

- H.E. Huang Runqiu, Chinese Minister of Ecology and Environment & President COP15

- Rt Hon. Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State BEIS & COP26 President

- Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

- H.E. Liu Xiaoming, Ambassador of China to the UK

- H.E. Barbara Creecy, South African Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries

- Henry “Hank” Paulson Jr, Chairman Paulson Institute, 74th Secretary of the US Treasury

- The Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, UK Minister for the Pacific & Environment

- And 75 senior legislators from all around the world.

Editors Notes:

The Convention on Biological Diversity is one of three conventions that was signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. (The others were the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification) The CBD has three main aims:

1. The conservation of biological diversity

2. The sustainable use of the natural world and

3. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from genetic resources.

The Conference of the Parties (or COP) is the meeting of member states to chart strategies for conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. COP15 which was supposed to take place in October 2020 has been postponed because of Covid 19 and will now take place next year in Kunming, China. It has the task of setting a new ten-year strategy after the failure to achieve the Aichi targets which were set at COP10 in Nagoya, Japan in 2010.

The current Draft Text for the post 2020 framework has been criticized by NGOs and environmental scientists as lacking in ambition and as postponing key decisions about the mechanisms for implementation until one fifth of the way through the period, in 2022.

China as the host of COP 15 has a key leadership role in ensuring success and has committed to what it calls its Redline Policy which define the limits of human encroachment into ecologically sensitive areas. China sees this strictly enforced conservation of ecology as part of its programme of national security.

The UK as the host of COP26 has emphasized the importance of “Nature-Based Solutions” to address the climate catastrophe which uses natural mechanisms such as peatland or forest restoration to reduce or sequester carbon and provides resilience against climate threats such as flooding or coastal erosion by the restoration of natural meandering river systems or the protection of mangroves.

The President of both COPS will give short pre-recorded presentations recognizing the need to integrate the messages of both conferences and to work together for a sustainable future.

The public can watch the conference by Live Stream on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s1_pr_Jb8o

ABOUT THE APPG

The APPG on International Conservation is a cross-party group of politicians with a specific interest in and understanding of conservation, biodiversity, and management of the natural environment. Through this summit, they seek to join their voices with those of legislators around the world to persuade governments of the importance of recognizing Kunming and Glasgow as a final opportunity to halt the decline in biodiversity.

ABOUT ICCF UK

The International Conservation Caucus Foundation U.K. is a registered charity in England and Wales 1191764 and a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales 12291141.

ICCF-UK works to advance British leadership in international conservation through public-private partnerships and to develop the next generation of Parliamentary conservation leaders. It provides the secretariat to the APPG. ICCF-UK is part of a global network of Parliamentary conservation caucuses. The ICCF Group advances leadership in international conservation through public and private partnerships, and by raising conservation awareness among policymakers. The ICCF Group has a global network of active parliamentary conservation caucuses. In addition to the UK and US, ICCF Group supports caucuses in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia; Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Gabon, Indonesia, and Thailand

Mr Gardiner can be contacted on 07785114910.

He is a previous Shadow Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change and was the world’s first Minister for Biodiversity in the Blair government between 2006-2007 where he piloted an ecosystem services and natural capital approach and established Natural England.

For more information please contact Satyen Sinha, Chief Executive International Conservation Caucus Foundation-UK at: ssinha@internationalconservation.org

Or on his mobile at :07779624088

ENDS


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