Is it a new day for freshwater biodiversity? Reflections on outcomes of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

Abstract

The 2022 United Nations (UN) Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognized for the first-time 'inland waters' as a distinct realm in terms of setting targets and a process for monitoring and conserving them and their biodiversity. It is common for environmentalists and environmental scholars to bemoan things that they care about, but that have been forgotten, ignored, or excluded when it comes to environmental decisions, or the development of environmental policy. Often those concerns focus on a specific taxonomic group or species, a specific locality, a particular environmental decision, or a particular regional or national policy. However, rarely do they focus on an entire realm that occurs around the globe. By 'realm' we are referring to terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Equally important, some of the key messages of the Kunming-Montreal GBF were picked up at the UN Water Conference in March 2023, the first of such meetings in almost 50 years, which commits to a global water action agenda to restore and protect freshwater ecosystems as a component of sustainable development. Here, we draw attention to the CBD included language that recognizes inland waters on their own merits (i.e., as a distinct realm) within the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) [1] that was submitted by the President of CBD COP 15, held in Montreal, on December 18, 2022.Previously, freshwater ecosystems were inherently-and in our opinion, mistakenly-considered part of the terrestrial realm. Concerns existed about the lack of attention to inland waters in the 2011-2020 Aichi Targets [2]. These concerns were redressed in the Kunming-Montreal GBF by recognizing the need to move beyond reference to simply 'land and sea,' and to place more specific focus on inland waters and their biodiversity. In particular, inland waters are now explicitly recognized for focused attention in two targets of the Kunming-Montreal GBF text submitted from the CBD President (i.e., Target 2 and Target 3).Target 2: Ensure that by 2030 at least 30 percent of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration, in order to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity and connectivity.

Environmental Status of the Ligawasan Marsh: A Critically Important Wetland in the Philippines

“…decision-making, thereby ensuring the sustainable protection and preservation of Ligawasan Marsh. Integrating conservation initiatives with the priorities of global targets, such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, by implementing collaborative and science-based governance is crucial for a comprehensive and sustainable approach to Ligawasan Marsh conservation [13,98]. Ultimately, promoting peace and safer access to promote more research and important discoveries should be key priorities for conserving and protecting the environment and ecosystem services provisions of the Ligawasan Marsh [21,25].…”

“…For instance, it was not well-integrated as a distinct ecosystem within the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (2011-2020). Still, it is now clearly emphasised in the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) [13], specifically in Target 2 aiming to "ensure that by 2030 at least 30% of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration, in order to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity and connectivity", and Target 3 focused to "ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and . .…”

Limited knowledge of national plastics policy effectiveness may hinder global progress

“…This presents a missed opportunity where the burgeoning number of emerging plastics policies (Karasik et al, 2022) and the forthcoming international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution have the potential to address a myriad of other issues and meet national and international targets in other arenas if carefully designed to account for the synergies between plastics and climate change, biodiversity, labour and international trade. This could mean concurrently addressing the UN SDGs (Walker and Fequet, 2023), the High Seas Treaty (Lothian, 2023), the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Cooke et al, 2023) and the Paris Climate Agreement (Farrelly et al, 2021).…”

Complex compositional and cellular response of river sediment microbiomes to multiple anthropogenic stressors

“…Even positive developments seen at large scale in Europe for some indicators have come to a halt since 2010 (Haase et al, 2023). Thus, a key global task acknowledged in the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework endorsed at 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) is to put freshwater ecosystems into conservation focus (Cooke et al, 2023). This recognition acknowledges the relevance of streams in providing essential services for nature including transport and cycling of carbon and nutrients on a longitudinal scale (Fasching et al, 2020;Tiegs et al, 2019) and pollutant removal (Hilderbrand et al, 2023).…”