100 GROUPS call for an agreement to halt extinction and recover species during the next round of negotiations on the global biodiversity framework.
Dear Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity,
On behalf of more than 100 organizations, we write with an urgent request. As the final working group negotiations over the post-2020 global biodiversity framework take place in June before CoP15: agree to halt human-caused extinction beginning in 2022.
The global community is living through an unprecedented biodiversity crisis. Dozens of species are lost daily, and UN scientists predict we are on track to lose one million species, many in the coming decades.[1] Human activities are unraveling the fabric of life on this planet, raising baseline extinction levels from 10 to 10,000 times the background rate.[2] By destroying, converting, and fragmenting habitat and exploiting and trading species[3], profit-seeking industrial activities — not evolutionary factors — are driving biodiversity loss.
The consequences of this loss are dire. We are undermining our planetary life-support systems including food pollination, water purification, carbon sequestration, and disease regulation.[4] Globally, we are losing the very species that inspired our histories, myths, and cultures.
The world’s leading conservation scientists have called for transformative change[5], and UN Secretary-General Guterres has called for “bold action to end our suicidal war with nature.”[6] You can take that action by agreeing to already-proposed text that would set the goal of halting human-caused species extinctions beginning in 2022; improve the conservation status of threatened species and sustain all other native species by 2030; and ensure full recovery of all species by 2050 in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.[7] Globally we must do everything in our power to accomplish these objectives and accompany them with financial backing and capacity sharing so we can unite to save life on Earth.
The impending extinction of hundreds of thousands of species is a choice and by maintaining the status quo, governments are choosing extinction. This must stop. Future generations are depending on us to act boldly, and the time to respond to the biodiversity crisis is rapidly dwindling. Please make 2022 the year in which the world chooses to stop extinction and commits the resources to do so. Life on Earth depends on it.
Sincerely,
Center for Biological Diversity – United States
Natural Resources Defense Council – United States
Signers
Animal Defenders International
Shark Guardian
Pro Wildlife
Born Free Foundation
East Caribbean Coalition for Environmental Awareness (ECCEA)
EMS Foundation
Environmental Investigation Agency
Europäischer Tier – und Naturschutz e.V.
Deutscher Tierschutzbund e.V.
Menschen für Tierrechte – Bundesverband der Tierversuchsgegner e.V.
Helversen’sche Stiftung für Arten- und Biotopschutz
Lake Constance Foundation
Global Nature Fund
Vogelschutz-Komitee
Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald Bundesverband e. V.
Pan African Sanctuary Alliance
Humane Society International
EARTHDAY.ORG
GRABE-BENIN
ECO MAIRES
WILD Foundation
Conservation X Labs
Namibian Chamber of Environment
The Corbett Foundation, India
Wildlands Conservation Trust
Freeland
CBCGDF
Gallifrey Foundation
Gower Street
BirdLife Zimbabwe
AGEREF/CL
Stop Ecocide International / Stop Ecocide Foundation
Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute, SAFCEI
SAFCEI
Born Free USA
Thinking Animals United
Deutsche Umwelthilfe (Environmental Action Germany)
Center for Environmental Ethics and Law
Earth League International (ELI)
Association Marocaine pour la Protection de l’Environnement et du Climat ASMAPEC
CORDIO East Africa
S.P.E.C.I.E.S.
Fondation Franz Weber
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
Oceanic Preservation Society
Earth Law Center
Environmental Investigation Agency US
Cornell Botanic Gardens
International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute
Animal Welfare Institute
Endangered Species Coalition
BirdLife South Africa
Humane Action Pittsburgh
Re:wild
Resource Renewal Institute
Atlanta Botanical Garden
Endangered Habitats League
Revive & Restore
Center for Plant Conservation
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
WildEarth Guardians
Rocky Mountain Wild
Pelican Island Audubon Society
Klamath Forest Alliance
Environmental Protection Information Center- EPIC
Environmental Defense Fund
Para la naturaleza
Howling For Wolves
Japan Wildlife Conservation Society
Gotham Whale
Bat Conservation International
Mighty Earth
Citizens Coal Council
Christian Council of Delmarva
WildAid
Pan African WCN
Save the Elephants
Amboseli Trust for Elephants
AAP Animal Advocacy and Protection
Dierencoalitie
Stichting Bont voor Dieren
FOUR PAWS
Ecoflix
Stichting De Faunabescherming
ConservationDrones
AU Law Program on Environmental and Energy Law (PEEL)
CHD Conservation Kenya
Law of the Wild
Environment and Conservation Organisations of NZ
Environment and Rural Development Foundation
Renctas
Defenders of Wildlife
Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment
Northwest Environmental Advocates
Elephant Voices
Right to Health Action
OneNature
The Humane Society of the United States
Humane Society Legislative Fund
Orang Utan Republik Foundation
The Orangutan Project
[1] https://ipbes.net/global-assessment
[2] https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/23550/285%20de%20Vos%20et%20al%20Cons%20Biol%202014.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
[3] As well as changing our climate, generating pollution, and transferring invasive species.
[4] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1400253
[5] https://ipbes.net/global-assessment
[6] https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1102672
[7] https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/c949/b2cc/a311c0c411d3a81134e2c7f3/wg2020-03-l-02-en.pdf