Money and accountability needed to meet global conservation targets

The greatest and most lasting legacy we can leave for future generations is the birthright to the natural environment and the diversity of flora and fauna that we take for granted today. (Photo: iStock)

By Julia Evans

12 Feb 2023

At a stakeholder feedback session to discuss the outcomes of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference that took place in December last year, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy emphasised that without financing, we won’t be able to implement the global targets that we agreed upon.

“One of the things that we have to be very careful of is that we don’t set up what I call paper parks,” said Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Barbara Creecy on Friday 10 February.

“So on paper, yes, 30% of the land is under conservation. But in reality, we would find a situation where that is very, very far from the truth. And the reason it’s far from the truth is that we don't have the finances to protect that land, we don’t have the finances to monitor whether there’s sustainable practices on that land, and we don’t have the finances to administer it.”

Creecy was speaking about the viability of implementing the hallmark “30 by 30” target, part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework that was adopted at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, COP15, held in Montreal, Canada in December 2022.

The final plenary to confirm articles of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at the UN Biodiversity Conference,Montreal, Canada, 19 December 2022. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Historic moment for nature and humanity as Kunming-Montreal framework adopted at UN biodiversity conference”

At a virtual stakeholder feedback session on Friday 10 February to discuss the outcomes from the conference the Director-General of the DFFE, Nomfundo Tshabalala, who represented the SA delegation in Canada in December (as Creecy was tied up with the ANC conference back home) said the framework, “is seen as the new roadmap in terms of living in harmony with nature, and it aims to facilitate, enable and fund action necessary to address biodiversity loss.”

The conference saw 196 nations as part of the convention (including us) committing to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. It is a global goal hailed as the equivalent of the 1.5°C climate target.

If you’re confused – check out in Daily Maverick: “COP15 EXPLAINER Another COP? Here’s what you need to know and why you should care”

The hallmark “30 by 30” target is to effectively conserve at least 30 percent of terrestrial and inland water, and of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions, by the year 2030.

Currently, 17% and 10% of the world’s terrestrial and marine areas, respectively, are under protection.

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In South Africa, according to the DFFE, 16.65% of South Africa’s 121 million hectares of land are under conservation estate (just over 20 million hectares) and about 14.5% of South Africa’s waters are protected.

Deputy Director-General Mohlago Flora Mokgohloa explained that the DFFE already has a national protected area expansion strategy, which commits SA to achieving 28% of protection by the year 2036, and has a project under the new funding model of the Global Environment Facility which will contribute to our existing efforts on expansion.

“Much of the land in the world which is not yet developed exists on the African continent and exists in developing countries,” said Creecy on Friday, explaining that if we are going to protect our resources then, “we have to fundamentally alter the way in which we’re doing things.

“And this is going to call for new technology, and new forms of innovation and ultimately, new forms of investment. And that will require resources in excess of what is currently available in climate funds, or biodiversity funds.”

Creecy said that in building partnerships with private landowners, ensuring community land ownership, and conserving land that’s under traditional ownership, the question of financing is central.

Creecy and the SA delegation made it clear, going into the conference, that we would need three things to be able to implement the targets – finance, capacity building and technological support.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “SA to ask for more money at upcoming global biodiversity talks, as at COP27, hints Creecy”

Analysts estimated the funding needed to implement the framework is $1-trillion a year.

The final text used a smaller number, of $700-billion a year, made up of phasing out or reforming harmful subsidies of at least $500-billion a year by 2030, and mobilising at least $200-billion a year of financial flow for biodiversity by 2030, in domestic and international biodiversity-related funding from all sources, public and private.

Tshabalala explained that to raise $200-billion, COP15 adopted the Strategy for Resource Mobilisation which has two phases – an intermediate phase (2023–2024) to raise $20-billion per year by 2025 and a medium-term phase (2025–2030), to raise at least $30-billion per year by 2030.

“This is to ensure that we implement the framework and it must be supported by a mechanism that will strengthen the technical and also the scientific cooperation in the form of a hybrid of global region and also sub-regional centres,” said Tshabalala.

DFFE’s implementation plan

The last targets set in 2010 under the Convention on Biological Diversity, 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, were not fully met.

Like many problems in SA, the targets contained good ideas but didn’t include proper implementation.

Shonisani Munzhedzi, CEO of the public entity, South African National Biodiversity Institute and co-chair of the resource mobilisation contact group at COP15, told DM at the start of the conference: “There’s an acknowledgement that the previous strategic plan didn’t work,” explaining that a report on its failures indicated it was mainly down to implementation.

The first step in DFFE’s implementation strategy is to lead engagements with stakeholders to contribute to the implementation plan.

“That implementation plan will then be followed by a national feedback session, where we are going to be engaging with all stakeholders involved. And we also are going to look at this implementation plan by categorising those 23 targets of the GBF [global biodiversity framework],” said Tshabalala.

The DFFE is running thematic consultations from February to the end of March, with the possibility of extending the period.

Following this, they will review their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and align it with the implementation of South Africa’s White Paper on Conservation and Sustainable Use – the draft was approved by cabinet in June 2022, and it’s open for public comment – and then develop national targets.

Accountability – how DFFE will do it

Tshabalala explained that the DFFE will develop national indicators, which will be “key for us to be able to track this process and be in a position to evaluate whether we are indeed achieving the targets that we have set ourselves”.

From the monitoring and evaluation processes and national assessments they are planning on conducting, National reports will be formed.

Holding private sector accountable

Khungeka Njobe of WWF SA said that it was important for stakeholders to emphasise that, “biodiversity is important to conserve because it is foundational to our economy. It is also key to deal with issues of poverty.”

WWF SA suggested an endowment fund for conservation be implemented, which Creecy later said was “an interesting idea” after emphasising that we need money to meet the target.

“Because this is a big job,” said Njobe, “it requires resources that the fiscus cannot afford, because they have competing priorities, but also there will always be a need to support development objectives.

“We are obviously suggesting that private sector investment needs to be looked at but we need to put forward conservation value propositions that work,” added Njobe.

Gabi Teren, manager of the National Biodiversity and Business Network at The Endangered Wildlife Trust, said they are particularly focused on target 15 from the framework, which is where “government will require all large businesses and financial institutions to assess and disclose their risks, their impacts and their dependencies on nature, through operations, supply and value chains and portfolios”.

“I think we can all agree, business has done a pretty poor job in general,” said Teren at the feedback session on Friday, highlighting the findings from Endangered Wildlife Trust’s 2020 Biodiversity Disclosure Project, which rated the biodiversity performance of all companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and found that less than a quarter of them in 2020 recognised biodiversity as a material issue, and had any mention of biodiversity in their sustainability reports.

“What we are wanting to do at the end of the day is to roll up the scaling of corporate footprints – where companies have to measure their biodiversity impacts through footprints to national accounts – so that biodiversity can enhance government in meeting national targets,” said Teren

Teren explained that measuring impacts can be done through biodiversity accounting. “We established the biodiversity protocol, which looks at how to scale up the accounts from corporate to national level,” she said. DM/OBP

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DFFE’s implementation plan

Accountability – how DFFE will do it

Holding private sector accountable