International observers of biodiversity governance watch very keenly any action by the United States government. Remember the phrase, "when America sneezes, the world catches a cold".
At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, for example, the world community watched in total exasperation when the late president George H.W. Bush personally declined to sign the just-agreed Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
After all, the CBD was modelled after US conservation laws. The decision not to sign also boggled minds because US officials had lead the treaty's six-year drafting and negotiation process. Thankfully, more than 150 other nations and the European Union signed.
And, while president Bill Clinton did eventually sign in 1993, the US Senate never ratified the treaty, diminishing both its world image and its ability to affect global conservation and sustainable use efforts. Among the political leaders who tried to get the US Senate to ratify the CBD in the 1990s was then-senator Russ Feingold, now chair of the Global Steering Committee for the Campaign for Nature (CFN).
The CFN works with scientists, Indigenous people, and a growing coalition of more than 100 conservation organisations worldwide calling on policymakers to commit to clear and ambitious targets when they meet for the CBD's upcoming 15th Conference of the Parties in Kunming, China.
The CFN's recommended goal: protect at least 30 per cent of the planet's land and marine areas by 2030, working with Indigenous leaders to ensure full respect for Indigenous rights. It was gratifying, therefore, on Jan 27 to watch as US President Joe Biden committed the US to protecting 30 per cent of its land and oceans by 2030.
As stated by Enric Sala, Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society: "Today's announcement by President Biden is a win for the people of the US and the rest of the world, the environment, and the economy."
Confronting the multiple threats to Earth's plants and animals and the extremely high rates of species extinctions and habitat loss ranks among the most pressing and existential challenges of our time.
An IPBES (Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) report in May 2019 warned that one million (of the estimated eight million) species on Earth are at risk of extinction in just a few decades.
Protecting nature has multiple benefits as there is increasing scientific evidence that one-third of the cost-effective solutions to climate change could come from nature.
Interestingly, Biden's announcement was soon followed by the release of an independent report, commissioned by the British government and led by Cambridge University economist Partha Dasgupta, that urged a new approach to measuring global economic performance.
Dasgupta's recommendations include adopting indicators of economic health, especially the state of goods and services that sustain life and regulate the climate — water, soil, air, and rainforests, for example.
To quote Dasgupta: "Even while we have enjoyed the fruits of economic growth, the demand we have made on nature's goods and services has for some decades exceeded her ability to supply them on a sustainable basis. The gap has been increasing, threatening our descendants' lives."
"We are embedded in Nature," he says, and "nature is more than a mere economic good."
President Biden's "30x30" commitment, like those of other world leaders and governments, returns the US to what had once been traditional under presidents of both major political parties: leadership and dedication to environmental conservation to ensure clean air and water, and to protect endangered species. Historically, such policies had also enjoyed strong bipartisan and public support.
To achieve and maintain 30 per cent protection requires new attitudes and approaches, and commitments to science that yields even greater understanding of the planet's health, how it affects human wellbeing, and how best to protect nature and ourselves. We are living through a disastrous viral pandemic that dramatically underlines this need.
Also fundamental to success is inclusive, meaningful public engagement in decision-making, including people of all backgrounds with different perspectives of nature.
We can do it: According to The Democracy Index 2019 report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit last week, Malaysia scored 7.16 points out of a maximum of 10 — its best score ever. Malaysia scored good marks for electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government and political participation, and political culture.
As one commentator put it: a lot of people need to be at the table, and they need to listen to each other.
The writer is a member of the CFN Global Steering Committee and was a Malaysian representative during the original negotiation of the CBD
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
