Sustaining Biodiversity Vital to Preserving Planet
THE TIMES KUWAIT REPORT
Biodiversity forms the foundation of all life on Earth, it also underpins every aspect of global well-being from supporting the economy, to sustaining food systems and health, as well as combating climate change. Experts warn that the current rate of biodiversity loss worldwide could be a death-knell for the planet, unless we implement effective measures to safeguard and conserve biodiversity.
According to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), biodiversity represents the diversity within species, between species, and in ecosystems, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. It is this diversity and its interactions that create the amazing variety of life on Earth, and keep the global ecosystem in harmony, while providing everything in nature that humans need to survive, including food, clean water, medicine and shelter.
United Nations Biodiversity Summit, COP 16, which is being held in the Colombian city of Santiago de Cali from 21 October to 1 November, aims to raise awareness on the critical role that biodiversity plays in sustaining life on Earth; ramp up measures to curb wanton destruction of nature by humans; and to revitalize global efforts to protect, preserve, and restore biodiversity in all its forms.
Two years ago, at the COP 15 in Montreal, Canada, nearly 200 countries signed on to the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), which called on countries, among others, to protect and preserve biodiversity on 30 percent of their land and marine area by 2030. At COP 15, developed countries also agreed to contribute at least $20 billion annually from 2025 to help developing countries meet the Framework’s goals, with this amount rising to $30 billion annually by 2030.
Two years from COP15, progress on implementing commitments to, and funding for, the goals of the Biodiversity Framework remains lukewarm and sluggish. According to figures from the UN Biodiversity Secretariat, by the start of COP 16 on 21 October, only 35 out of the 195 signatories to the Framework had submitted their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). Funding for biodiversity work, at less that $280 million so far, also falls far short of the $20 billion promised by 2025.
Delegates to COP 16 are in the process of reviewing progress in implementation of the KMGBF, and alignment of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) submitted by countries, with the goals of the Framework. COP 16 will also strive to enhance the monitoring framework, advance resource mobilization, and operationalize mechanisms to equitably share benefits from genetic resources. In addition, considering the increasingly evident correlation between biodiversity loss and climate change, the conference will seek to address them concurrently.
The Convention of Parties (COP), which meets every two years, is the governing body made up of all members (Parties) that ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The CBD, a seminal international treaty adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, recognizes the importance of biological diversity, and covers all ecosystems, species, and genetic resources, as well as links traditional conservation efforts to the economic goal of using biological resources sustainably. Importantly, the CBD is legally binding; countries that join it are obliged to implement its provisions.
Kuwait, which ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2002, remains committed to conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Despite this commitment, the absence of coherent and cohesive strategies to address biodiversity loss,, the lack of coordination between government agencies and civil society organizations engaged in protecting the environment, as well as the dearth of specialists and technical capabilities to protect and promote biodiversity, have hampered Kuwait’s efforts.
Although at first glance, Kuwait would appear to be an arid desert area where high temperatures and scant rainfall lead to sparse vegetation and biodiversity, the land is home to over 30 different species of mammals and reptiles, as well as being host to more than 440 species of birds. Given its location at the head of the Arabian Gulf and adjacent to the mouth of the Euphrates-Tigris Rivers, Kuwait is also a major crossroad of several bird migration routes, with millions of birds transiting the country each year.
But it is Kuwait’s marine and littoral ecosystems that contain the bulk of its biodiversity heritage, particularly the marine area, which is characterized by an abundance and diversity of species and environments. Kuwait Bay, considered a natural nursery for fish and shrimp larvae, also gives rise to mudflats that serve as an important transit area for migratory birds. Saline wetlands to the south of Kuwait, and coral reefs off the country’s southern coast, are other rich and productive locations for biodiversity in the country.
Over the last many decades, land area in Kuwait, especially the desert ecosystem, has borne the brunt of the country’s progress and development. Overgrazing, uprooting of trees and shrubs, increased human intrusions, including through new constructions, leisure and entertainment activities, stone quarries, earlier military operations, and lack of rigor in implementing laws for protecting biodiversity, have all contributed to a significant reduction in species and their habitats.
Additionally, threats to marine biodiversity come from overfishing, bottom trawling and illegal fishing, as well as fishing in breeding areas and anchoring on coral reefs. Marine habitats and species are also being negatively impacted by chemical runoffs from industries, increased salinity from desalination plants, and polluted waters arriving through the Shatt El-Arab, the main waterway feeding the Arabian Gulf.
On a positive note, the new government has made sustainable growth a key plank of its development plans, including through strengthening coordination and coherence among policies, programs, and legislation in various institutional activities. The authorities are also aiming to streamline and improve efficiency of public sector undertakings, and avoid overlap in their work. Integrating the multiple public entities currently engaged in environmental work, could lead to more effective, concerted and coherent efforts in protecting and preserving biodiversity.
The urgency of stemming biodiversity loss and reviving ecosystems is underlined by the ‘Living Planet Report-2022’ released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The Fund found that the global population of vertebrate species—organisms with a vertebral column or backbone, such as mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes and amphibians— have declined by an average of 69 percent since 1970 In the same period, the decline in freshwater vertebrate species was a staggering 83 percent.
Although biodiversity loss in plants, fungi and invertebrates such as insects, which make up over 75 percent of all animal species is less well known, severe declines have been documented in many places. The WWF report, along with other scientific studies, estimates that over a million species may be threatened with extinction in the coming decades.
Species loss has been attributed to several factors, including habitat destruction from unsustainable agricultural practices, industrial logging, and the introduction of invasive species into traditional habitats of other species. A new report on global habitat loss shows nearly 75 percent of ice-free land and 63 percent of oceans have already been negatively transformed by human activities. Biodiversity loss has also been exacerbated by overfishing, pollution, and climate change, which is expected to become the greatest threat to biodiversity in coming decades.
In a video message to the opening ceremony of COP 16, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged delegates to “make peace with nature” and shore up plans to stop habitat loss, save endangered species, and preserve our planet’s precious ecosystems. Noting that the Global Biodiversity Framework promises to reset relations with Earth and its ecosystems, the UN Chief added, “The framework is grounded in a clear truth— for humanity to survive, nature must flourish.”
