UN official set to tell Dublin conference Ireland must step up effort to address biodiversity loss

All countries including Ireland need to scale up ambition and actions to halt global biodiversity loss, according to Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

There is an urgent need to commit to implementation of a “2050 vision of living in harmony with nature” to arrest species loss and decline of ecosystems, she will tell the national biodiversity conference opening in Dublin Castle on Wednesday.

Ms Mrema will underline the need for “a transformative post-2020 global biodiversity framework, supported with adequate means of implementation” in response to decline of nature across the planet that is being exacerbated by climate change.

The gathering with input from global experts on nature will inform completion of a new national biodiversity action plan (NBAP) with more than 400 stakeholders from NGOs, academia and government departments participating. An Irish roadmap for an “all-of-government, all-of-society approach” to the biodiversity crisis is due to be published in 2023; a process led by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

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A UN summit, which was repeatedly deferred, is due to finally convene and agree a new global deal to arrest declining biodiversity and destruction of nature in Kunming, China, later this year. The Cop15 meeting has been described as an attempt to forge “a Paris agreement for nature”, backed by targets for stemming extinctions and stopping habitat losses this decade. The Dublin conference will be opened by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan, who has responsibility for the NPWS.

Mr Noonan confirmed the NBAP would be published in early 2023 to allow for recommendations from the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity to be taken on board. Resourcing for the NPWS has been increased by 64 per cent since 2020. A highly-critical independent review of the NPWS was published in May, leading to a fully-funded strategic action plan to transform the organisation and to better enable it to deliver positive outcomes for nature.

Mr Noonan added: “The natural world is in crisis and it’s because of our decisions – we need to make better ones that are based on science, informed by local knowledge, delivered by the communities that know the landscape best, and funded and supported by government and society as a whole.”

Mr Noonan acknowledged people valued nature now more than ever. “It’s time to put it at the heart of our decision-making, and ensure that the web of life that we all depend on can be restored, protected and made resilient for the future.”

Mr O’Brien said he wanted to see “an ambitious plan that reflects the scale and urgency of Ireland’s biodiversity emergency, embraces the restoration and protection targets outlined in the EU’s biodiversity strategy, and embeds the commitment needed to ensure its actions are delivered.”