BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Environment experts urged related parties to take active actions after the Kunming Declaration was adopted during the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) held in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province in mid October.
The declaration commits to ensuring the formulation, adoption and implementation of an effective post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to reverse the current loss of biodiversity and ensure that biodiversity is on the path to recovery by 2030 at the latest, so as to fully meet the 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature.
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, CEO and chairperson of Global Environment Facility told Xinhua previously that the Kunming Declaration will significantly help advance the agenda on climate and nature conservation.
"The Kunming Declaration will help us not just to generate ambition in the complex negotiations ahead but will help enormously in narrowing the action gap between climate and nature conservation," said Rodriguez.
"We need a more integrated approach. COP15 and the Kunming Declaration will help us move the integration agenda," highlighted Rodriguez.
"The Kunming Declaration shows that countries are aware of the problem. Biodiversity loss is on par with the climate crisis but needs to be translated into action. We need to get the actual goals on paper and agreed to," James Roth, senior vice president for global policy and government affairs at Conservation International, told Xinhua previously.
"The global community needs to come together to close the biodiversity funding gap. China's financing commitment will hopefully move other countries to help close the dramatic funding gap," he said, adding "moreover, the expansion of protected areas in China should be a motivator for other countries to follow."
Photo shows a view of Baofeng Peninsula Wetland in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Countries have reached the consensus at the ministerial level that biodiversity loss and other disastrous trends "pose an existential threat to our society, our culture, our prosperity and our planet," he said, noting "this is a bold and alarming statement that must serve as a wake-up call."
To that point, the Kunming Declaration connected biodiversity with human health and well-being, he said. "We cannot view biodiversity as something separate from our lives. If areas rich in biodiversity are degraded, all of human civilization will suffer." (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)