A new global biodiversity fund that aims to accelerate the protection of 30% of the planet by 2030, as defined at last year’s COP15, was established yesterday, Thursday, by the international community.

Officials from nearly 190 countries, gathered in Vancouver, on Canada’s west coast where unprecedented wildfires are raging, thus moved from “agreement into action,” said David Cooper, the deputy executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. (CBD).

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Canada and Britain were the first two countries to commit C$200 million (approx. €136 million) and GBP 10 million (approx. €11.6 million) respectively to this global Framework Fund for Biodiversity (FCMB).

This fund will enable the mobilization of various governments, but also private actors to support developing countries, especially the most vulnerable small island states.

For the first time, it will notably include 20% earmarked directly for indigenous and local initiatives aimed at nature protection.

“It’s a historic day,” Lucy Mullenkey, co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Biodiversity, told delegates at the meeting in Vancouver.

This fund embodies “our ambitions for the future of biodiversity,” Stephen Guilbeau, Canada’s environment minister, emphasized at the same time, referring to a “generational struggle.”

“This effort is the beginning of everything,” said Manuel Rodríguez, the director of the Global Environment Facility (FEM), which is the agency that oversees the FCMB.

“We have made a good start. We are now calling for more commitments from countries and other sources so that the first projects under the new fund can start next year,” David Cooper also noted.

The creation of this fund follows the agreements reached at COP15 held in Montreal last year at the end of December. Participating countries committed to a road map aimed primarily at protecting 30% of the planet by 2030 and increasing annual biodiversity aid to developing countries to $30 billion.

The establishment of the fund was also welcomed by the majority of non-governmental organizations.

Avaaz stressed, however, that the amounts collected so far “are not enough” and that an additional $40 million “is still needed to make the fund operational by the end of 2023.”

Avaaz called on governments that have expressed support for the fund’s establishment, including Japan and the US, to “put money on the table”.