Netters try to catch sardines at the Amanzimtoti beach, south of Durban on July 3, 2019. - Like the running of the bulls in Spain, the migration of the wild-beast across Kenya, the sardine run along South Africa's East Coast is an annual event attracting thousands of locals and tourists. Each year massive shoals of sardines stretching hundreds of miles draw thousands of sharks, dolphins and gannets hovering above the fish. Masses of fishermen, locals line the shores to watch, catch and some sell them. (RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP)
Scientists, conservationists and youth leaders are calling on the government to back a draft United Nations target to double globally protected areas to stem the loss of nature and reduce the effects of climate change.
Target 3 of the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is to be decided at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) or COP15, in May in Kunming, China. The next round of negotiations will take place from 14 to 29 March in Geneva.
But the 30×30 plan has drawn controversy, being described as a “false solution” to the biodiversity crisis that could unleash human rights violations, worsen food insecurity for some of the world’s most impoverished people and further imperil nature.
Not so, said Dr Enric Sala, explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, at a recent briefing organised by National Geographic South Africa. “Scientists have conducted many studies and found that protecting 30% of the planet is the absolute minimum required to curb biodiversity loss.”
Conserving the right 30% will reduce the extinction risk of nearly nine out of 10 endangered species and safeguard half the world’s vulnerable carbon stocks stored in vegetation and soils, he said. “Any reduction in the global target would go against science and our best interest.”
South Africa is a global leader in conservation and communal land management. “And 30×30 can simultaneously address the twin crises of nature loss and climate change while also improving the lives of all South Africans. This is a global effort and the world needs South Africa’s leadership.”
The 30x30NOW campaign is urging the forestry, fisheries and environment minister, Barbara Creecy, to sign up to the target and “assert its environmental leadership” by joining the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, a group of more than 80 countries, 25 from Africa, calling for “swift and sure progress” toward the 30×30 goal.
By providing support for the global 30×30 target, South Africa “would be paving the way to garner the support of other African countries”, said Merrisa Naidoo, a youth leader with Youth4MPAs.
South Africa’s support, according to the campaign, will among others, pave the way for more support across the continent and global community, and help guarantee the rights and knowledge of “our people and local communities”.
Although South Africa is the world’s third most biodiverse country, it has lost over 18% of its natural habitat and nearly half its terrestrial ecosystems are threatened. It has, however, increased both marine and mainland protected areas to 15.5% and 15.66%, respectively and identified future protection targets within its National Protected Area Expansion Strategy (NPAES).
30×30 is not a national target but a global target, Sala said. “Not all countries are expected to have the same responsibilities. In some cases, protecting 30% nationally could be impractical, while in others it may be inadequate in terms of safeguarding the most important places for biodiversity.
“The first step is to get a global agreement to protect 30% at the CBD and then how much each country protects should be a sovereign decision made in conjunction with communities and scientists.”
The target is “not just about expanding the lines on a map”, he said. “It is about improving both the quality and quantity of areas for conservation and ensuring equitable governance and effective management. The inclusion and leadership of indigenous peoples and free and prior informed consent are critical to the target,” said Sala.
Albi Modise, spokesperson for the department, said South Africa does not subscribe to global campaigns outside of the formal multilateral agreements and negotiations. “This is a principle that guides all our participation in multilateral processes.”
The cabinet approved the National Protected Area Expansion Strategy in 2020, which is informed by systematic conservation planning. “The NPAES aims to increase South Africa’s conservation estate by 0.5% per year with a 20-year target to have 28% of the country’s surface area under conservation by 2036. The ultimate target set in the NPAES is to conserve 36% of South Africa’s total terrestrial area and marine areas, which should be representative of all biomes,” Modise said.
The plan to carve out 30% of the Earth as protected areas is a “dangerous” way to deal with the environmental crisis and will be the “biggest land grab in history”, according to Fiore Longo, of Survival International.
“It’s a plan without scientific basis, that will do nothing to combat climate change or the loss of biodiversity, but will increase human suffering and the destruction of nature. It will involve taking vast areas of indigenous peoples’ lands and turning them into militarised national parks and reserves where evictions, killings, torture and rape are commonplace.”
Indigenous people represent 6.6% of the population and their lands make up 80% of the most biodiverse places on Earth, she said. “Instead of fighting the real causes of environmental destruction and tackling those most responsible: growing over-consumption and exploitation of resources for profit led by the Global North, it is indigenous people … who have protected the planet best and are least responsible for environmental degradation, who are set to lose the most.”
Mariam Mayet, the executive director of the African Centre for Biodiversity, said conservation has tended to take the approach of fence-and-protect, also known as fortress conservation, with private landowners, or large international NGOs securing funds to run protected areas.
“This approach is deeply exclusionary and requires the dispossession of communities to make way for the separation of humans and nature, and is built around a narrow, technicist body of knowledge on ecological protection that excludes knowledge and natural resource management systems of smallholder, indigenous and local communities.”
What is being proposed is the continued bias towards conservation and a “very outdated” model of conservation. “This is despite the fact that this focus did not curb biodiversity loss in previous decades and its dismal track record of human rights violations. We are seeing this particularly around … Target 3, which in many ways is becoming an apex target of the framework.”
This, she said, involves powerful conservation groups converging to promote this target, under the coalition, linked to the Campaign for Nature. “We are deeply concerned about the rogue capital involved, operating behind the scenes, to support such measures, with limited participation and consideration for those who have direct relationship with landscapes and biodiversity, and who maintain and nurture biodiversity and biodiverse landscapes. This furthers the interests of countries and companies that benefit from this divide.”
Healthy ecosystems are more resilient to climate change and provide life-critical services such as food and clean water, said Hans-Otto Pörtner, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group II co-chair, at the launch of its latest report on climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, last week.
“By restoring degraded ecosystems and effectively and equitably conserving 30% to 50% of earth’s land, freshwater and ocean habitats, society can benefit from nature’s capacity to absorb and store carbon, and we can accelerate progress towards sustainable development, but adequate finance and political support are essential.”
Debra Roberts, the co-chair of working group II, told an African briefing: “We probably …need to look to conserve 30% to 50% of our land, freshwater and ocean ecosystems. This is a particularly important call for Africa given the enormous and rich biodiversity we are still privileged to have on our continent. The real question, though, is how do we do that in a way that still acknowledges the development challenges of our continent and that does it in a just and equitable manner.”
[/membership]