Agree in Nairobi to stop extinction now
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| Image source: Dribbble |
By Tanya Sanerib (Center for Biological Diversity) and Paul Todd (Natural Resources Defense Council)
Draft Goal A contains language to reduce extinction risk by 2030 and ensure healthy, thriving populations of all species by 2050. But extinctions must end immediately, not in 10 or 30 years. Goal A (or Target 4) must ensure that from now, human-induced extinctions are halted.
While extinction is natural and some species will be lost to either natural processes or long-term damage from climate change, the vast majority of extinctions occurring now are caused by human activities, and they can be prevented. The Aichi Targets committed to halt extinctions of known threatened species by 2020. That did not happen. So, we must recommit ourselves to halting extinctions now, or we stand to lose around a million species in the coming decades, according to the 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report.
The vaquita porpoise, Javan rhinoceros, prickly cica, Amur tiger, and myriad other species are on the brink of extinction. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies 8,722 species as “Critically Endangered” and many more as “Endangered.” We can save them before they blink out, but only with urgent action.
We cannot live in harmony with a natural world that no longer exists. We must stop extinctions now, reduce the risk of extinction by 2030, and eliminate that risk by 2050. Anything less will be a failure, and the whole planet will be lonelier for it.
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