MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil sets new biodiversity targets for 2025-2030 term

A total of 23 goals have been set to promote the regeneration of Brazil's biomes

Brazil's National Biodiversity Commission (Conabio) has established new national biodiversity targets for the period 2025 to 2030 and recommended a new set of measures for the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP), pursuant to the Dec. 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), of which the South American country is a signatory.

A total of 23 goals have been set to promote the regeneration of Brazil's biomes. The first goal focuses on reducing biodiversity loss and is divided into two key components. One addresses spatial planning and participatory management of the entire national territory, considering climate change and land-use changes. The other sets a target of achieving zero deforestation in the country.

The remaining targets, aligned with the GBF, focus on ecosystem restoration, conservation, and management; promoting and expanding sustainable trade; preventing species extinctions and genetic diversity loss; and reducing invasive alien species and pollution.

National policy also includes goals related to access to and sharing benefits from using genetic resources and digital genetic sequence information. This issue was a major point of contention at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) held in October 2024 in Cali, Colombia.

The lack of consensus in the negotiations prompted a second round of discussions, set to begin next week in Rome, Italy. The 196 GBF signatory countries are expected to advance in presenting their action plans.

Other goals presented by Conabio reflect Brazil's stance on key negotiation obstacles, including the effectiveness of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF). Managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the fund serves as a financing mechanism to help less developed countries strengthen their biodiversity protection policies.

One of the remaining targets, aligned with the GBF, focuses on preventing species extinctions and genetic diversity loss as Brazil seeks to boost funding for the implementation of the NBSAP and its state versions, aiming to increase biodiversity-related resources substantially and in proportion to the national GDP. This effort contributes to the global target of at least US$ 200 billion per year by 2030. The measure also explores ways to complement public funding, including incentives for private sector engagement in strengthening ecosystem protection and supporting traditional communities.

Other key issues in Brazil's goals, expected to gain traction in the Rome discussions, include eliminating subsidies harmful to biodiversity and promoting training, technical-scientific cooperation, and technology transfer for the conservation, management, and sustainable use of socio-biodiversity. (Source: Agencia Brasil)