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The minister of state for Environment, Dr Iziaq Salako, has outlined Nigeria’s goals to protect and preserve the country’s biodiversity at the ongoing 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) taking place in Cali, Colombia.
Iziaq, who delivered the Nigeria’s national statement on Wednesday, said that the country identifies with the progress being made towards the protection of our natural world since the adoption of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Stating the goals, the minister said that Nigeria is “reaching the completion of the adoption of an updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) which provides a clear and ambitious roadmap towards the preservation and recovery of our natural resources. We are also strengthening our national capacity to protect nature through other policies, action plans and legislative framework.”
He added: “Nigeria is leading the way with our sister ECOWAS Nations to ensure the implementation of 30 by 30 and I can proudly announce that we are on a clear path to secure effective protection of 30% of the ECOWAS region by 2030.
“My country and the ECOWAS subregion are also united behind prompt ratification of the new high-seas treaty with nine out of the 15 ECOWAS countries having signed this new treaty.
“Nigeria is coordinating to jointly seek the designation of the first generation of highly and fully protected marine protected areas in the high seas.
“We are also uniting to launch a coordinated action to combat illegal and unsustainable exploitation of threatened wild species.
“We are seeking to work with leaders around the world on the development of mechanisms to advance equitable accountability for truly global action on halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030.”
The minister stated that a true partnership between Global North and Global South is needed to meet these goals.
According to Iziaq, “We are doing everything we can because we are clearly running out of time. Our ecosystems are being drained of their ability to support us, and we can not be passive spectators as the crisis unfolds in front of us. This is why I am concerned that our efforts continue to be compromised by significant delays in the allocation of financial resources.”
Stating challenges to achieving these goals, particularly finance, the minister noted that ambition for nature cannot be dissociated from ambition for nature finance.
He said, “The two go hand in hand. If we don’t deliver on nature finance, the commitments we made in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will remain empty aspirations.
“Our global community committed in target 19 (a) of KMGBF to allocate at least USD20 billion per year by 2025 and USD30 billion per year by 2030 to developing countries for nature finance. Delivering 20 billion in biodiversity finance to the global south is a modest step in the right direction. However, the world is clearly not on track to achieve these commitments.
“Our ambition on addressing biodiversity loss needs to be matched with accountability in meeting the funding commitments that have been made to developing countries. The wealthiest countries need to match with finance the ambition on nature protection coming from the Global South, and this is my plea to all of you today. Lets not turn back on our commitments.”
Concluding, the minister reiterated the readiness of the Government of Nigeria to implement decisions that will be adopted at COP16. He said that President Bola Tinubu is determined to ensure that Nigeria continues to plays its role in honouring multilateral environmental agreements without compromising the sovereignty of the country.
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