The year 2022 is key for biodiversity

Given the fact that the 2020 Global Biodiversity Targets have largely failed, it is crucial for the global society to rebuild confidence and look into the next decade with new ambition and strategies. Just like the Paris Agreement, adopted by the UNFCCC, the CBD COP 15 has aimed to achieve an agreement on a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) based on the consensus of all Parties, with the vision of halting and reversing the trend of biodiversity loss by 2030. In July 2021, the first version of GBF was drafted by an Open-Ended Working Group, and, prior to the Conference, there had been five working group meetings to improve and finalize the draft. Some focus items have continued challenging the process of formulating the final version of the GBF. They were considered as keys for a successful outcome of the Conference and include: the global biodiversity framework itself; resource mobilization; digital sequence information on genetic resources; planning, monitoring, reporting and review within an associated monitoring framework; capacity building and development; and, technical and scientific cooperation.

Beyond the negotiation tables,hundreds of side events took place in parallel hosted by the COP 15 observer organizations. Their topics addressed and covered all aspects related to biodiversity crisis. Some issues were repeatedly heard during my stay, such as the urgent need to shift away from business as usual towards nature-positive results and to strive for a whole-society approach for innovative and collaborative solutions.

My experience at the conference

My particular interest lies in the civil society organizations and groups’ positions and actions demonstrated at the conference. There were booths of these major groups, including Youth, NGOs, Women, Indigenous People and Local Communities (IPLCs), Business and Finance, etc., where these respective actors were able to share their work and stories, organize public awareness campaigns, and gather like-minded stakeholders to expand networks. I still remember a thought-provoking speech held by a representative of African indigenous people and local communities on biodiversity conservation and sustainable resources use. In fact, 80% of the world’s biodiversity are found in indigenous land. The people in local communities know the right ways to protect nature in their land, but often their concerns are not being heard and understood, and conservation fundings that go into their hands are not sufficient. What still needs to be improved is to ensure a legal framework to safeguard their proper livelihood and rights to manage resources.

My personal understanding of the term “biodiversity conservation” has also been deepened and further developed during the this COP. It refers to a value and lifestyle. The means of biodiversity conservation should not only be based on science, but also based on learning and respecting the diverse cultures and knowledge of those who are the real stewards of nature.

Insights on the outcome of COP15

On the 17^th, the two divided working groups and the Ministers appointed to lead consultants on outstanding issues reported their updates for the last time during the Stocktake Plenary before reaching the Decision Plenary set on the 19^th. After a 4-year marathon of negotiations, the Parties with differences in interests and priorities gradually compromised with each other and chose to stick to the strong ambition and work together to bring the common goals to fruition. 40 hours later, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was finally adopted, safeguarding the key targets of “protecting 30% of Earth’s lands, oceans, coastal areas, inland waters; reducing by $500 billion annual harmful government subsidies; cutting food waste in half; mobilizing at least $200 billion per year in domestic and international biodiversity-related funding from all sources ” by 2030.

Conclusion

Being able to witness part of this whole negotiation process was not only an eye-opening experience, but it made me realize that it is not impossible for the global society to fight against the greatest environmental crisis and protect our only homeland together. Although it is a tough and long journey to implement the new framework, it is the time to start to respect nature, and not let nature make compromise to us.

The post Inside COP15: The Way to Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

The last one and a half years have drastically shown how vulnerable mankind is on earth. The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the many problems we face today but also in the future. Since Covid-19 disease originates from zoonotic coronavirus, there is a strong linkage between humans, animals, and the environment. Experts suggest that the 2019 pandemic outbreak was not the last one to come [1]. In order to tackle the problem and to be prepared for the future an integrated perspective is required. This is where the One Health approach comes into play.

What is the One Health approach?

Created in 2005, the One Health concept incorporates a multisector expertise and follows a holistic and transdisciplinary approach [2]. Generally speaking, health refers to the wellbeing of the physical, mental, and social status. But because the health issues are broad and complex, the One Health approach primarily focuses on health crisis related to ecological and environmental drivers and underscores the interconnectedness of health between humans, animals, plants, and the environment where they inhabit. It holds that to achieve ultimate human health, animals, plants, and environmental health needs to be addressed as well. Health threats shared by people, animals and the environment including zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety and food security, vector-borne diseases, and environmental contamination are all common One Health issues [3].

Example of One Health – Antimicrobial Resistance

One example of applying the One Health approach in combating global health crisis is addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In order to protect humans, livestock and agricultural production from bacterial infection, drugs containing antibiotics and antimicrobial agents have been widely used across the world. However, the pervading use of antimicrobial drugs has given rise to the microorganisms’ capability to adapt to those drugs. Consequently, the antimicrobial-resistant bacteria continue to harm human and animal health. What is worse, the antibiotics provide opportunities for zoonotic bacteria to develop resistance genes while transmitting to human bodies via food sources (e.g. meat products), direct animal contact, and contaminated environmental sources [4]. Facing the rapidly increasing threat posed by AMR, transdisciplinary collaboration and intersectoral countermeasures must come into force, such as the One Health approach.

Following this transdisciplinary approach, several organizations raise awareness of AMR. For instance, the World Health Organization developed the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS), which drives local, national, and regional action. Laying the main focus on the collection, analysing and sharing of AMR data on global level, decision making on different levels should get enhanced [4,5].

According to the latest report, 109 countries and territories worldwide have enrolled in the Surveillance System until May 2021. The Assessment shows that GLASS significantly helped to foster the development of national AMR surveillance systems. As next steps it is aimed to enhance the completeness and quality of data [6].

Outlook

Most likely the Covid-19 pandemic has not been the last zoonotic disease posing a threat to humans. Close collaboration of different domains will be a key contribution for solving and preventing further crisis. The One Health Approach seems therefore a good possibility to tackle health related challenges in the future. Especially the holistic approach entails many opportunities for solutions on the global, national and local level. However more applicable frameworks should be provided, in order to enable a better implementation by different stakeholders with varied interests and interpretations of the One Health approach. Effective performance of One Health initiatives at all levels could hardly be achieved without developing more coherent and endurable frameworks for the increasingly diversified practitioners.

References

[1] Zowalaty, M. E., & Järhult, J. D. (2020). From SARS to COVID-19: A previously unknown SARS- related coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) of pandemic potential infecting humans – Call for a One Health approach. One Health, 9, 100124. doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100124

[2] Destoumieux-Garzón, D., Mavingui P, Boetsch G, Boissier J, Darriet F, Duboz P, Fritsch C, Giraudoux P, Le Roux F, Morand S, Paillard C, Pontier D, Sueur C and Voituron Y (2018). The One Health Concept: 10 Years Old and a Long Road Ahead. Front. Vet. Sci. 5:14. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00014

[3] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018). National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. One Health Basics. Last viewed 23.07.2021 from https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/index.html

[4] Schneider, M. C., Munoz-Zanzi, C., Min, K and Aldighieri, S. (2019). “One Health” From Concept to Application in the Global World. Global Public Health. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190632366.013.29

[5] WHO (2021). Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS). Last viewed 27.07.2021 from https://www.who.int/initiatives/glass

[6] Global antimicrobial resistance and use surveillance system (GLASS) report 2021. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

The post The One Health approach to mitigate global health crisis related to ecological and environmental drivers appeared first on Global Change Ecology.