By George George Idowu
The Minister of State for Environment Dr. Iziaq Salako has called on the developed nations of the world to investment more on nature in Nigeria and other developing countries towards achieving the $20 billion annually in international biodiversity finance to developing countries by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030.
He made this plea during the celebration of the world environment day on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the biodiversity finance was adopted during the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), adopted at Montreal, Canada in 2022.
According to him, 196 countries ratified the agreement during the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity when the commitment to invest $20 billion and $30 billion between 2025 to 2030 into developing countries was agreed upon.
He said the agreement was a plan to halt and reverse the rapid biodiversity loss that the planet is experiencing adding that the framework came against the background of dangerous “decline in nature threatening the survival of 1 million species and impacting the lives of billions of people worldwide”.
Hence, a global target was set to be achieved by 2030 and beyond in order to safeguard the sustainability of world’s biodiversity.
The minister said that the Global South represents 85% of world’s population and is home to most of the globe’s biodiversity that provides essential ecosystems services benefiting every area on earth while Global North represents 15% of world’s population have benefitted economically the most from practices negatively impacting global diversity thus controlling 61% of global GDP.
Hence, the Global North has the resources, the Global South has the biodiversity, and the world needs them both if we are to mitigate the worst consequences of climate change and a century of our ravenous consumption of the planet’s resources.
According to him, investing in nature is investing in our future, which will yield dividends in multiple folds.
In his words: “When we invest in nature, we protect our ecosystems, safeguard our people, provide good jobs, ensure food security, invite further investment, stabilize our economy, shelters ourselves from climate change, and preserve our indigenous ways of life.”
Salako highlighted some of the challenges emanating from the climate change crisis.
He stressed that to address these challenges, there is a need to prioritize nature-based solutions (NBS).
He opined that this is more of going back to the basics as NBS is nothing new but a better appreciation of the importance of living in harmony with nature.
“NBS are interventions that use nature and the natural functions of healthy ecosystems to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time. They address key societal challenges through the protection, sustainable management, and restoration of both natural and modified ecosystems, benefiting biodiversity and wellbeing.
“NBS is a vital tool for tackling climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution, and waste. It is a cost-effective pathway to our drive for generations’ restoration, ” the minister said.
