Governments from around the world are meeting between 7th and 19th December in Montreal, in Canada, at COP15 (the fifteenth United Nations Conference of the Parties on Biological Diversity) to finalise negotiations on the new Global Biodiversity Framework. The Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) community wants the KBAs to be at the centre of this framework, so that plans to increase the protection/conservation of land and marine territory to 30% by 2030 include places that contain significant populations of species, extent of priority ecosystems or sites of ecological integrity.
On 7 December, the KBAs Secretariat held a parallel session at the Nature Positive Pavilion at COP 15 with the theme: Why Key Biodiversity Areas should be in the global Biodiversity Framework. The event was attended by several academic institutions, NGOs, private sector, research institutions, and some countries such as Kenya, Canada and Mozambique. The latter was represented by Eng. Alexandre Bartolomeu, head of the Department of Environmental Management at the Ministry of Land and Environment, specifically in the National Directorate of Environment, which is the entity that chairs the KBAs National Coordination Group (NCG) in Mozambique. Eng. Bartolomeu shared Mozambique's experience in establishing the NCG and identifying KBAs, which was one of the first countries worldwide to conduct a comprehensive national assessment, applying the Global Standard 2016 to a whole range of biological groups and elements, culminating in the identification of 29 KBAs.
The KBAs that have been identified and mapped are crucial to guide the preparation of development and land use plans (terrestrial and marine), from the local to the national level. Their inclusion as a decision-making support tool helps to mitigate the impact of development projects and to support the strategic expansion of the national Protected Areas network, strengthening the conservation policy framework.
Other countries also shared their experience, showing how the KBAs contribute to the achievement of the 30x30 target, as some countries have used them to create new areas and/or extend existing ones.
For more information on KBAs worldwide click here
For more information about the KBAs in Mozambique click here
For more information on the New Global Biodiversity Framework click here