UN Photo/M. Wild

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced their ambitious strategy to protect global biodiversity, with a program that requires significant investment and commitment over the next decade.

“As 1.2 people living in severe poverty depend directly on nature for their basic needs and livelihoods, this needs urgent international attention,” Rebeca Grynspan, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNDP Associate Administrator said during the 11^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad, where the program of action was unveiled.   “Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are undermining hard-won development gains, taxing societies and saddling the international community with extremely high costs.”

If these developments are to be halted, “the integration of biodiversity and ecosystems management into the development and poverty reduction agenda needs to be promoted.” Grynspan elaborated.

The new strategy under the title: ‘The future we want: biodiversity and ecosystems- driving sustainable development’ aims to: integrate biodiversity and ecosystem management into development planning; unlocking the potential of protected areas so that they are better managed and financed; and managing and rehabilitating ecosystems for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.

 “Our objective is to help member states arrive at a unified set of concise, clear and measurable development goals that keep poverty reduction at their core.” Grynspan said.

Those development goals might only be achieved if investment in biodiversity is scaled up significantly in the next decade. Together with local governments, UNDP will work out a strategy to releases finances of domestic revenue that can be utilized for biodiversity management.Funding through donors and other forms of outside financial mechanisms will also be developed under UNDP’s leadership.

“We have a window of opportunity between now and 2020 to help countries shift the course of development to maintain and enhance their natural capital”. Braulio Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said. “UNDP’s work will be crucial in this regard­.”

In partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) UNDP is responsible for the largest environmental portfolio within the UN. For the implementation of their biodiversity protection project, UNDP will work together with national governments to manage the protection of biospheres and ecosystems that consist of more than 1.4 billion hectares of land and water, across 100 countries.