At present, just 17% of land and 8% of the ocean around the world are considered protected (Image of Poison Frog Ameerega bilinguis)|Andreas Kay|CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Almost 200 countries agreed on Monday to protect 30% of Earth’s land and ocean by 2030 at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference: COP15 in Montreal.
As of now, only 17% of land and 8% of the ocean around the world are considered protected. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted Monday aims to change this.
Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
The agreement has 23 environmental targets aimed at halting and reversing the ongoing biodiversity crises. The most important among them are:
- Increase overall biodiversity funding to $200 million annually
- Conservation of 30% of all land and sea before 2030, also called 30x30
- Developed countries to pay developing countries $30 billion a year before 2030 for biodiversity.
The US is not a party to the Convention, but
Monica Medina, the US special envoy for biodiversity, was present at the convention and emphasized that the Biden administration has its 30x30 commitment, called America the Beautiful.