"Environmental leaders from 185 countries gathered in Vancouver, Canada, on Thursday to adopt a multibillion-dollar fund to support global conservation, and the United Nations called for contributions to help protect 30% of land and coastal areas by 2030.
The meeting comes eight months after governments agreed to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — which some have called the "Paris Agreement for Nature", invoking the landmark 2015 U.N. pact to tackle climate change. More than a million species are estimated to be facing extinction, according to the U.N.
One of the framework's 23 targets is to help mobilize public and private sector players to funnel $200 billion per year to conservation initiatives by 2030, with developed countries contributing at least $20 billion of this every year by 2025.
"We are off to a good start," said David Cooper, acting executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity. "We now call for further pledges from countries and from other sources so that the first projects under the new fund can be launched next year.""
Gloria Dickie and Isla Binnie report for Reuters August 25, 2023.
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