International Declaration on Biodiversity

New Zealand is joining its voice and influence with others in the international community to better protect biodiversity by joining the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration adopted in Egypt on 15 November.

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage joined other political leaders at the event to discuss global biodiversity at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) High Level Segment in Sharm El-Sheikh.

“This declaration comes at a pivotal point for nature,” Eugenie Sage said.

“Despite significant efforts, global biodiversity continues to decline. As the international community begins work to establish new biodiversity targets, we also need to increase our focus and do all we can to achieve the current “Aichi” targets. New Zealand will be doing its bit to accelerate action at home.”

New Zealand has started to develop a new national biodiversity strategy.

“With many of New Zealand’s native plants and wildlife found nowhere else in the world, we have an international responsibility to safeguard them for their own sake, and for present and future generations,” Eugenie Sage said.

The declaration focuses on the importance of mainstreaming biodiversity across relevant sectors of the economy, with a particular emphasis on energy and mining, infrastructure, and manufacturing and processing, as well as health.

“It was important to New Zealand that the Declaration acknowledge the importance of circular economy principles to ensure less waste is created and more reuse is possible,” said Eugenie Sage, “and I was pleased to see this reflected.”

The meeting of the parties to the Convention, which continues over the next two weeks, will establish a pathway towards the adoption in 2020 of a new global biodiversity plan.

Declaration text: https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/4ae5/5d11/2e166e7924acf3d036cfda89/cop-14-hls-07-rev1-en.pdf

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