President Macky Sall's candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General places the protection of biodiversity among its priorities. About one million species face extinction, and the nature on which food and water depend is receding on every continent.
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.
A global framework, a clear goal. 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 text is adopted; its reach will depend on financing and on implementation.
Those who protect must gain from it. Biodiversity is often found in the countries and communities with the least means to preserve it. Conservation cannot rest on the poorest; shared financing gives it a chance.
What the Secretariat can carry. The Secretary-General does not designate protected areas. He can keep biodiversity on the agenda and link it to climate and development, recalling that a collapsing nature carries away with it the water and the harvests it sustains.
Experience in multilateral negotiation. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin these commitments. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
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