Resetting relations with natural world imperative lifesaver for humankind: China Daily editorial

Biodiversity loss is a grave challenge to humanity. Recognizing this, China spared no effort in promoting the adoption of a post-2020 global biodiversity framework at the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Convened under the auspices of the United Nations, chaired by China, which had the presidency, and hosted by Canada, the outcome of what the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity described as "sometimes fractious discussions" has been hailed as "a peace pact with nature".

Despite the concerns of some countries about how the actions are to be funded, that agreement was reached on four goals and 23 targets for 2030 is a testament to China's resolve that the meeting, which was regarded as a make-or-break moment for biodiversity conservation, should not just be a talking shop.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework embodies the best efforts of all parties to build a shared future for all life on Earth.

As the statement released after the meeting said, the representatives of 188 governments on site (95 percent of all 196 Parties to the UN CBD, as well as two non-Parties — the United States and the Vatican), finalized and approved measures to arrest the ongoing loss of terrestrial and marine biodiversity and set humanity in the direction of a sustainable relationship with nature, with clear indicators to measure progress.

Importantly, in addition to the China-brokered Global Biodiversity Framework itself, the meeting also approved a series of related agreements on its implementation, including planning, monitoring, reporting and review; resource mobilization; and the digital sequence information of genetic resources.

And it emphasized the needs to foster the full and effective contributions of indigenous peoples and local communities and a "whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach" to implement the new framework effectively.

In a world currently fraught with division, the agreement is of additional significance as it shows that countries can put aside their differences for the common good.

By protecting biodiversity, we are not only protecting other species we share our home with but also safeguarding our foods, drug resources and raw materials supply, ensuring the fertility of arable lands, and stabilizing the atmospheric content, all of which are crucial to our own survival as a species.

In Beijing-based Nanhaizi Park, there is an "extinct animal cemetery" with about 100 fallen dominoes, each representing a species that has gone extinct since 1680. There is a to-fall one for humans too. It is the second to last in the line, as it is predicted we will die out earlier than rodents if the current trend of extinction continues.

The framework reached at COP 15 will hopefully reverse that trend, but as Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme cautioned, it is "but a first step in resetting our relationship with the natural world".