On Monday 28 October, the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the International Union for Conservation of Nature called for faster action to protect 30% of the planet.
The two organisations published the ‘Protected Planet Report 2024’, on the sidelines of COP16 in Cali. It states that 17.6% of the world's land and inland waters and 8.4% of its oceans and coastal areas are in “protected and conserved areas”.
The report is the first official assessment of global progress on the elements of target number 3 (relating to the 30% of the planet to be protected) of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It points out that the effectiveness of protected and conserved areas has not yet been sufficiently measured, with less than 5% of land “covered by protected areas where management effectiveness has been assessed” and “1.3% for the marine realm”.
Getting to the heart of the matter in Cali. The high-level segment (HLS) is being held on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 October at COP16 on biodiversity. Stakeholders, including the EU, represented by the director of the European Commission’s DG Environment, Florika Fink-Hooijer, and the EU Member States, are due to discuss the implementation of the global framework, its financing, and the inseparability of the fight against biodiversity loss, the fight against global warming and peace between peoples and with nature. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)