Africa-Press – Mauritius. Countries across the world are being encouraged to join a groundbreaking new conservation initiative, which brings together governments, Indigenous peoples, and local communities, to help achieve the global goal of preserving 30% of the planet’s land and water by 2030.
Launched today at COP28 in Dubai by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) and technology company Esri, Act30 brings together a wide network of scientific experts and Indigenous peoples’ representatives to help governments chart an effective and fair route to conserving their countries’ biodiverse areas.
The initiative is designed to support the 190 governments that have committed to the 30×30 target of conserving 30% of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas by 2030, under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed in December 2022.
Currently only 15% of land and 7.4% of oceans are protected under official laws. Significant progress is urgently needed to upscale conservation measures both within and outside legally-recognised protected areas and across Indigenous territories to reach this goal.
Act30 will partner with Indigenous peoples and local communities to bring theirexperience on governance, Indigenous conservation systems and traditional knowledge and practices directly to decisionmakers using IUCN’s long-standing experience of supporting countries’ conservation efforts, together with the expertise of IUCN’s expert commissions and members.
“No one knows better than Indigenous peoples and local communities that our collective future relies on a healthy planet.
The Act30 partnership will help place their wisdom at the centre of decision-making, scaling up vital conservation measures to protect 30% of the world’s lands and seas by 2030. We must listen to their voices if we want to overcome the pressing challenges facing Earth,” said Dr Grethel Aguilar, Director General of IUCN.
Act30 is designed to transform 30×30 from a global goal to a national and local reality by partnering with countries to develop roadmaps for conservation efforts, while upholding the rights of Indigenous peoples and their lands and territories.
The initiative demonstrates the commitment of IUCN and IIFB to co-design and co-implement solutions, formalised in the signing of the Podong Initiative in Gland, Switzerland on August 4, 2023.
Using the IUCN Green List Standard, the global benchmark for quality conservation, and the world-class geographic mapping tools of Esri, the initiative will pinpoint high-impact, ecologically representative locations where 30% of lands and waters should be brought under protection to deliver the maximum, long-term benefits for nature, people, and species.
“Act30 represents an unparalleled opportunity to advance inclusive and holistic conservation planning informed by advanced location intelligence,” said David Gadsden, Esri Director of Conservation Solutions.
“Esri brings the world’s most advanced mapping and spatial analysis technology to the mission of comprehensive conservation, incorporating the ecological knowledge and guidance of Indigenous Peoples with Earth Observation data for achieving 30×30 at a global scale.
“Act30 comes at a crucial time for biodiversity conservation. It will be Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth who are the real changemakers.
If governments work with us, we will make progress in fulfilling the Global Biodiversity Framework target,” Lucy Mulenkei, Co-chair of IIFB, Indigenous Information Network, Kenya, said. Convening dialogues with an initial fourteen priority countries will begin in early 2024 to showcase leadership on best practice for conservation.
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