The nature on which food and water depend is receding on every continent. President Macky Sall has made the protection of biodiversity one of the priorities of his candidacy for UN Secretary-General.
Life fading away. According to the intergovernmental platform on biodiversity, IPBES, close to one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, many within the coming decades. Never in human history has life declined so fast.
The Kunming-Montreal framework. In 2022, states adopted in Montreal a global framework for biodiversity, whose flagship goal is to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030. The reach of the text will depend on the financing and implementation that follow its adoption.
Financing conservation. Biodiversity is often found in the countries and communities with the least means to preserve it. The poorest cannot carry conservation alone, and shared financing gives it its chance.
Linking nature to climate. Designating protected areas is a matter for states. The Secretary-General can keep biodiversity on the agenda and link it to climate and development, since water and harvests depend on a nature that is collapsing.
The 2030 goal and the President's experience. To reach the goal set in Montreal, President Macky Sall draws on twelve years as head of state and on the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022. That experience also gave its form to the vision statement filed with the United Nations. Its proposals (development conceived together with peace and security, a renewed multilateralism, a better-governed Organization) are written there as obligations.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The IPBES global assessment (2019) and the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework (2022) are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net