Do as the Romans do: dodging the virus to create a better world?

An opinion piece by Trevor Sandwith, Director, IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme

The meeting was changed to Rome because of the impact of coronavirus in China, and as we started the meeting with nearly 1000 people from every country in the world, we entered the FAO Headquarters in full knowledge that areas in the north of Italy were being red-zoned because of the rapid spread of COVID-19.  In his briefing, the Chief Medical Officer suggested that everyone should keep a safe distance from others (as we sat cheek by jowl in a crowded plenary hall).

Many participants quipped that “all roads lead to Rome” and “Rome wasn’t built in a day” to describe the nature of our meeting and the amount of work needed to save the planet.  It was only the next day that participants were temperature screened as they entered the building, while FAO staff entered without any specific precautions being taken (despite many having no doubt headed back from a weekend at the Venice carnival). We used public transport, we sat in the cafés across the road at lunchtimes and dinner times and queued up for coffee in the cafeteria.

The Chairs of some of the sessions bemoaned the fact that the long evening sessions meant that no-one could enjoy the sites of Rome! I returned from Rome and was invited to an apéro with all of my neighbours that evening. A month later, I am writing this in “solitary” confinement along with everyone else in Switzerland, and on the news it was just announced that 812 people died in Italy yesterday, bringing the death toll to 11,591, with 101,739 people infected.

The purpose of the OEWG was to make significant progress towards a new landmark agreement for biodiversity, and how to respond to and arrest the catastrophic declines reported in the IPBES (Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) report in late 2019. Many speakers referred to the urgency of the situation, and the need to establish a set of goals for 2050 and for 2030 that would address it. And predictably, the arguments and positions varied enormously, with countries blaming each other for the situation, and demanding compensation for the damage wreaked by developing nations on the less developed nations.

As happened with the climate negotiations that led to the Paris Agreement, the basic text of the Global Biodiversity Framework “ballooned” with alternative formulations being put on the table, and one could predict that the rest of the year would be spent in painstakingly negotiating every sentence and every word to come up with language that everyone could live with.

IUCN, together with Commissions and many members worked across the various topics and targets to put forward ideas and formulations that have been derived from the IUCN-wide consultation on an evolving position. We were determined to make 2020 the policy ‘super year’, where our World Conservation Congress in Marseille could be one of the launch pads for leadership to achieve an ambitious and transformative agenda for the planet. Many interventions were supported by Parties, taking up IUCN’s ideas based on our extensive experience with biodiversity and social science, and rooted in our practice.

Although the scope of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is broad, there are a number of elements that IUCN is championing, based on our analysis of progress achieved to date and what remains to be done, and what needs to change. Some of these elements related to protected and conserved areas and how they can achieve conservation goals effectively and equitably include:

1. The need to retain and restore freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems through comprehensive spatial planning and stewardship that explicitly addresses threats to biodiversity caused by changes in land-use. This of necessity has to engage with the multiplicity of actors and institutions that are the custodians of these areas, recognising that many remaining areas only persist because of their efforts in governing, managing and defending them.  This “whole” earth approach understands that it is intact natural ecosystems that are the foundation for all society and economy, and the health and well-being of the planet.
2. The need to protect all areas that are essential for the persistence of biodiversity, i.e. key biodiversity areas in systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, covering at least 30% of freshwater, land and sea areas. The main focus should be on achieving clear outcomes for biodiversity conservation, but through means that are both effective and equitable. We highlight that all protected and conserved areas should be free from environmentally damaging activities, and assert that it is the essential combination of equitable and good governance, together with effective management, that will achieve outcomes that are inherently just, fair and ultimately effective.

These are just some of the issues that might set the scene for the required transformative approach. We left Rome, confident that the process was beginning to shape up, and that there might indeed be good progress this year.

Well, that timetable has been up-ended, and we are all trying to come to terms with the rapidly changing situation facing the planet and all humanity. Paradoxically, the recent events have heightened the urgency of the degradation of the planet, and may even reinforce some of the solutions, albeit at great cost to so many people. And of course, there is a growing realisation that these issues are connected. The degradation of the natural environment affects many of the symbiotic relationships among species, causing changes in “predator-prey” and other trophic relationships, with consequences such as prey-switching, the spread of invasive alien species, and impacts on the population dynamics of species and communities. Coupled with this are the inexhaustible needs of humans for day to day survival and to improve livelihoods and quality of life.

The fragmentation of ecosystems results in increased interaction and exposure of humans and other species in ways that a novel and unanticipated. And so with the corona-virus and many other organisms that have and will “jump” into human populations. The Guardian expressed this in a very powerful article Tip of the Iceberg that suggests that this is only the beginning. The simile makes us recall expressions such as “we are just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” or “fiddling while Rome burns”. But despite this ennui, most of us engaged in biodiversity conservation know that it is nature and how we govern and manage it that holds the solution to this, and many other global crises.

Maintaining intact natural ecosystems and their integrity yields a dynamic equilibrium and interplay among species and communities; nurturing autonomous societies, empowered with their knowledge and capacity to govern in the interests of all people; and re-examining the basis of our greedy economy that strips the world of its resilience and salience in the interests of the few, are just some of the remedies that we will need to avert the “fall of this mighty empire”.