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Sifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor
The IUCN world conservation congress ended recently in Marseille, France amid calls for governments across the world to implement a nature-based recovery from the pandemic, invest at least 10 percent of global recovery funds in nature and adopt a series of resolutions and commitments to urgently address the interlinked climate and biodiversity crises.
The virtual congress which attracted participants from member states was held from September 3 to 11 September.
“The IUCN Congress acts as a unique, inclusive global environmental parliament, where governments, NGOs and indigenous peoples all have a voice. The decisions taken here in Marseille will drive action to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises in the crucial decade to come. Collectively, IUCN’s members are sending a powerful message to Glasgow and Kunming: the time for fundamental change is now,” said Dr Bruno Oberle, IUCN director general.
Some of the major resolutions adopted by IUCN members included a call to protect 80 percent of the Amazon by 2025, to halt deep-sea mining across the oceans and for the global community to adopt an ambitious One Health approach.
The active participation of Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation Members in IUCN’s democratic process brought the indigenous peoples’ rights and role in conservation under global spotlight.
About 148 resolutions and recommendations were adopted, 39 through a vote at the IUCN Congress in Marseille and 109 through online voting prior to the event.
In the closing session of the IUCN Congress, the Union’s state, non-governmental and Indigenous Peoples’ organisation members adopted the Marseille Manifesto, including the commitment to implement the first self-determined IUCN Global Indigenous Agenda.
Over 30 sub – national governments, cities, partner organisations and IUCN agreed to expand universal access to high-quality green spaces and to enhance urban biodiversity in 100 cities, representing around 100 million citizens by 2025 and assessing their impact according to the Urban Biodiversity Index.
Local communities in and around protected and conserved areas in Africa are set to benefit from a US$20 million facility to boost their recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 on people and nature under an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Germany programme.
Covid-19 has plunged the tourism industry in Africa and around the world into a crisis, crushing the supporting food, service, and manufacturing sectors that depend on tourism for employment and incomes.
The International Monetary Fund predicted that real GDP among African countries dependent on tourism shrunk by 12 percent in 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic has kept tourists confined to their home countries resulting in wildlife conservation initiatives that depend on tourism revenues being severely crippled.
With many tourists either cancelling or postponing their travel plans, budgets for wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe and most other African countries have been decimated drastically, reducing the capacity of responsible authorities to effectively execute their duties.
Zimbabwe and most other southern African countries have some of Africa’s largest game reserves, which are home to thriving populations of the big five; lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo.
Online Reporter