Aichi Biodiversity Targets

Why in news?

• None of the 20 ‘Aichi Biodiversity Targets’ agreed on by national governments through the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have been met, according to CBD’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 report.
•  The world was supposed to meet these targets by 2020.

About Aichi Targets:

• The Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity were developed at the Conference of Parties to the Convention in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010.
• They are intended to help countries measure their progress in preventing the loss of biodiversity and improving benefits from biodiversity to society.
• There are 20 Targets divided into 5 strategic Goals:
  • Strategic Goal A: Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society
  • Strategic Goal B: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use
  • Strategic Goal C: Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
  • Strategic Goal D: Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services.
  • Strategic Goal E: Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building

About CBD

• Convention on Biological diversity is a multinational treaty with three main goals including:
  • Conservation of biological diversity
  • Sustainable use of its components
  • Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources
• The objective is to develop national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
• The Convention was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and entered into force on in 1993.

CBD has two supplementary agreements:

• Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
  • It is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another.
  • It was adopted in 2000 and entered in force in 2003.
• Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS)
  • Its objective is the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources i.e. the third objective of CBD.
  • It was adopted in 2010 and entered into force in 2014.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Aichi Targets”, recently in news, are related to which famous environmental convention?
(a)Minamata convention
(b)Rotterdam convention
(c)Convention on Biological diversity
(d)United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification 

Answer to prelims question