22 May 2023
International Biodiversity Day: Varuna contributes to the K-M Agreement targets
May 22 is International Biodiversity Day! Nature and its biological diversity provide us with priceless ecosystem services on which we all depend.
The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was held in Montreal in December 2022. It saw the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement for biodiversity, which now should serve as a roadmap for the international community to limit the current erosion of biodiversity. This historic agreement was adopted by more than 190 countries. It includes 4 major objectives for the period up to 2050, broken down into 23 targets, most of them quantified for 2030.
It’s now time for action to implement the targets set by this agreement in a collective and concerted manner.
The Varuna program contributes to at least 9 of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement’s targets by acting to preserve biodiversity in the Indian Ocean hotspot. Through the three areas of intervention:
- Structuring networks of regional stakeholders to encourage coordinated efforts to preserve biodiversity;
- Support the integration of ecological transition issues, and biodiversity in particular, among economic stakeholders;
- Encourage the contribution of research to science and society dialogues on the subject of biodiversity.
Varuna and its implementing partners are contributing at their own scale, to the following targets of the Kunming-Montreal Accord:
- Target 3: Conservation and management of at least 30% of terrestrial and marine areas through the establishment of protected areas;
- Target 10: Support sustainable agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry;
- Target 11: Restore, preserve and enhance the contributions of nature to people;
- Target 14: Ensure that biodiversity and its values are fully taken into account in policy-making at all levels and in all sectors;
- Target 15: Take legal, administrative and policy measures to encourage and enable business to act;
- Target 16: Encourage and enable people to make sustainable consumption choices;
- Target 19: Increase financial resources to implement national biodiversity strategies and action plans;
- Target 20: Increase capacity-building, access to and transfer of technology, and promote innovation and technical and scientific cooperation;
- Target 21: Access to the best available data, information and knowledge.
More generally, Varuna supports the dissemination and promotion of biodiversity issues among different networks, academic, operational but also economic – as via its call for projects: the Indian Ocean Business & Biodiversity Fund launched on May 5, 2023.
This International Day of Biodiversity reminds us of the importance of raising awareness, mobilizing and taking widespread action to preserve biodiversity.
