COP15 president: Post-2020 biodiversity framework taking shape
In addition, biodiversity plays an important role in maintaining the natural ecological balance, for instance, by fostering water sources, purifying the environment, conserving water and soil, preventing or mediating natural disasters, safeguarding food security and protecting human health.
Over the years, the international community has become fully aware that biodiversity is of utmost importance and has acted to protect it.
However, the deterioration of biodiversity has undergone no fundamental changes.
In May 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published a report. It shows that due to human activity, 75 percent of the Earth's terrestrial environment and 66 percent of its marine environment have been significantly altered, more than 85 percent of wetlands have been lost, and about one-fourth of species face the threat of extinction.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a 2020 report that 41 percent of amphibians, 26 percent of mammals and 14 percent of birds are threatened with extinction. The global biodiversity crisis is worsening.
In the face of global biodiversity loss, we humans live in a community of a shared future and no country or organization or individual can remain immune.
In 2021, President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity. He said that the international community must enhance cooperation, build consensus and pool strength to build a community of all life on Earth.
Therefore, the international community should join hands to advance biodiversity protection, champion the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, respect, adapt to and protect nature, promote global cooperation in biodiversity protection, and uphold multilateralism and the principle of equal consultation. Only in this way can it pool strength to protect biodiversity, realize win-win results and jointly build a better home.
