Today was the first full day of meetings at COP 15, an international meeting of 196 countries working toward an agreement on biodiversity protection — a ten-year plan.
What’s biodiversity?
Image: Unsplash/Sonika Agarwal
Biodiversity is the term used for the wide variety of living things on earth — everything from bacteria and fungi to insects, rodents, birds, fish, mammals and more. The complex relationship formed between different life-forms is what enables ecosystems to flourish.
Why does it matter?
All life-forms depend on healthy ecosystems to survive, from the oxygen we breathe to the food we eat. But earth’s ecosystems are under threat due, in part, from biodiversity loss caused by human patterns of economic activity like cutting down forests, clearing wetlands for things like housing and highways, and drilling for mines in ways that strain species in the area.
What are some of the issues the delegates are grappling with?
Here are a two:
Around the world, Indigenous peoples are playing a critical role in protecting biodiversity. But they are also in endless disputes to get title to their traditional lands. Indigenous advocates and their allies are pushing for language about Indigenous rights and title to be included in the COP 15 agreement.
Another issue concerns nature-based solutions to biodiversity loss. One of the key questions for our global human community is: How can we shift economic patterns so that hundreds of billions of dollars will flow toward protecting land, water and earth species rather than making billions by extracting raw materials from nature?
There is much to figure out but the world must move forward. As a youth delegate said this morning, “The dysfunctional status quo is not acceptable.”
Sue Wilson, CSJ | Office for Systemic Justice | Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada