Tuesday,June 18, 2019

Info Bits

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)

The GBF is a landmark agreement adopted during the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada, on 19 December 2022 to guide global action on nature through to 2030.

The plan includes concrete measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30 per cent of the planet and 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. It also contains proposals to increase finance to developing countries.

Objectives of the GBF
  • address biodiversity loss
  • restore ecosystems and
  • protect indigenous rights. 

The GBF consists of four overarching global goals to protect nature:

  1. halting human-induced extinction of threatened species and reducing the rate of extinction of all species tenfold by 2050
  2. sustainable use and management of biodiversity to ensure that nature’s contributions to people are valued, maintained and enhanced
  3. fair sharing of the benefits from the utilization of genetic resources, and digital sequence information on genetic resources
  4. that adequate means of implementing the GBF be accessible to all Parties, particularly Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States

Some of the major targets of GBF to be achieved by 2030:

  • Effective conservation and management of at least 30 per cent of the world’s land, coastal areas and oceans. Currently, 17 percent of land and *8 per cent of marine areas are under protection
  • Restoration of 30 per cent of terrestrial and marine ecosystems
  • Reduce to near zero the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance and high ecological integrity
  • Halving global food waste
  • Phasing out or reforming subsidies that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year, while scaling up positive incentives for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use
  • Mobilizing at least $200 billion per year from public and private sources for biodiversity-related funding
  • Raising international financial flows from developed to developing countries to at least US$ 30 billion per year
  • Requiring transnational companies and financial institutions to monitor, assess, and transparently disclose risks and impacts on biodiversity through their operations, portfolios, supply and value chains

Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part.
– Convention on Biological Diversity

The Philippines is considered the “center of the center” because it has the highest concentration of species of marine biodiversity per unit area than anywhere in the world.
– The center of the center of marine shore fish biodiversity: The Philippine Islands, 2005


MegaDiverse Country

  • refers to the countries with a high total number of species including a significant percentage of endemic species
  • 70% of the world’s flora and fauna exist only in these 17 countries which is comprise just under 10% of the total surface of the earth ———Conservation International

2 Criteria for Megadiverse Country Classification: 1) have at least 5,000 endemic plants and 2) have a marine ecosystems within the boarders

Biodiversity hotspot

  • is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is threatened with destruction;
  • specifically refers to the 25 biologically rich areas around the world that have lost at least 70 percent of their original habitat






Caves and Wetlands

Photo Courtesy of DENR-NCR