Spotlight on world’s biodiversity at major international conference

8 December 2022

The world’s wildlife and ecosystems are in the spotlight this week at the fifteenth United Nations Biodiversity Conference (known as COP15), being held in Montreal, Canada. The meeting aims to set targets for biodiversity for the next decade and to stem the alarming global decline of the natural world.

Nowhere is the challenge more urgent than in Australia. This country has among the highest levels of biodiversity on Earth, with more than one million species of plants and animals. About 82% of our mammals and 93% of our frogs are found nowhere else in the world – we are stewards of a large portion of the world’s nature.

Wes Read/AWC

Conserving biodiversity is core business for Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). Over three decades we have developed a model of conservation that is helping wildlife populations grow and ecosystems recover. The landscapes where we work provide a template for what effective conservation looks like, on a vast scale.

AWC is showcasing our wildlife reintroduction program at COP15 with a submission to the conference’s virtual display table, which is accessible to all delegates and attendees for the duration of the meeting and can be accessed at our website via this link. As outlined in the document, AWC’s mission is strongly aligned with the 2030 mission of the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework “to halt and reverse biodiversity loss for the benefit of the planet and people.” AWC’s work is also squarely linked to the 2050 vision of the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework; to live in harmony with nature.

Ecologist Jamie Dunlop is AWC’s representative on the ground in Montreal. Arriving last weekend, Jamie participated in the two-day COP15 Youth Summit on December 5^th – 6^th  and he will be attending a number of other events on the sidelines of the official meetings.

The Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA), of which AWC is a founding member, also has a presence at COP15 and has made submissions in support of strengthening the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

The ambition for this year’s conference is for countries to ratify a Paris-like global agreement for nature. One of the major goals in the draft agreement is setting aside 30% of land and sea areas for conservation by 2030, while there is also a longer-term vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050.

AWC strongly supports a more ambitious set of global targets for biodiversity.