Nations have agreed to protect a third of the planet for nature by 2030 in a landmark deal aimed at safeguarding biodiversity.
There will also be targets for protecting vital ecosystems such as rainforests and wetlands and the rights of indigenous peoples.
The agreement at the COP15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada, came early on Monday morning.
The summit had been moved from China and postponed due to Covid.
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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres hailed the deal and said: “We are finally starting to forge a peace pact with nature.”
The main points include amongst others, maintaining, enhancing and restoring ecosystems, including halting species extinction and maintaining genetic diversity and sustainable use” of biodiversity – essentially ensuring that species and habitats can provide the services they provide for humanity, such as food and clean water.
The summit in Montreal had been regarded as a “last chance” to put nature on a path to recovery. Throughout the talks there was division over the strength of ambition and how to finance the plans.
One big sticking point was over how to fund conservation efforts in the parts of the globe that harbour some of the world’s most outstanding biodiversity.
Biodiversity refers to all the Earth’s living things and the way they are connected in a complex web of life that sustains the planet.
