UN COP-15 Shares With The World Why Biodiversity Is Important

By Cami Ezenwa

Within the United Nations system, there is urgency in showing why biodiversity is important, in fact, why biodiversity loss should remain a major topic of discussion.

And it sure was the first to the last agenda at the recently concluded United Nations (UN) Biodiversity Conference, the 15^th in the series of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

The meeting, underscoring why biodiversity is important, reiterated calls on states to commit to declaring 30% of the earth protected for conservation by 2030.

READ ALSO: United Nations Conference on Climatic Change.

The UN secretary-General António Guterres was quoted as that humanity was paying the price for betraying its closest friend.

“We are committing suicide by proxy”, he said in relation to man’s attitude that is affecting his environment

Well, what is biodiversity? Simply, the diversities or differences in natural life on earth; existence just as it originally is.

It encompass oceans and the creatures in it, other animal species and tropical plants wherever or in whatever natural form they may exist.

Each of these natural species and elements have their natural contributions to the stability of the eco system, and this answers to the question: why is biodiversity important.

Unfortunately, there have been far too many activities of man that have tended to harm the ecosystem, such that calls for biodiversity conservation have become strident.

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Human activities driven by sciences is worse offender. The emission of chemicals in the air by whatever means or shocks to the eco system due probably to the application of technological devices have their contributions in the threat to or loss of biodiversity.

These and more were the focus while the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) lasted, December 7 through to December 19, 2022, in Montreal, Canada.

But then, were set targets achieved? Amnesty International for one, believes it is a missed opportunity to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples.

READ ALSO: According to it, whereas the summit set significant targets aimed at arresting the alarming decline in biodiversity states at COP15, but however, “fell short of explicitly recognising Indigenous peoples’ lands and territories as a separate category of conserved area, which ultimately threatens their rights”. Surely the matters have just arisen.