Aichi Biodiversity Targets

Why in news?

• The Aichi Biodiversity Targets expired in 2020 and according to a UN assessment in 2020, no single country met all 20 Aichi Targets.

About Aichi Biodiversity Targets:

• The Aichi Targets were adopted during the 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) summit in Nagoya, Japan.
• It included goals such as reducing deforestation by at least half during the coming decade and curbing pollution so that it no longer harmed ecosystems.
  • Countries after the adoption of the target were expected to come up with their own national biodiversity strategies that would help in achieving the goals laid out by Aichi.
• Some progress was made towards the objective of conserving 17% of all land and inland waters and 10% of the ocean by the end of the decade.
• Six of the targets, including the land and ocean conservation target, were deemed “partially achieved”.
• However, most of its targets were not achieved by the world and Aichi was deemed a failure by the United Nations.
  • This is because, at a global level, none of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets was met or achieved.

Why the AICHI Targets Failed?

• The national goals adopted by each participating country did not always align with the Aichi targets, and the sum of national successes was insufficient to meet the overall global targets.
• The Aichi targets did not fail solely because they could not be measured. They also failed because countries were not required to report on their progress.
• A lack of accountability was always there. Committing to the Aichi targets is voluntary and non-mandatory, and results are self-reported to the CBD by each party.
• As these agreements are not legally binding, it is unclear how to translate and implement targets into national legislation.
• There were gaps in scientific knowledge at the national and regional levels.
• The Aichi target review mechanisms have been criticised as it is difficult to link pledged national commitments to actual implementation in the absence of transparent and rigorous review systems.

PRACTICE QUESTION

‘Aichi Targets’, often mentioned in news, is adopted under:

(a) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(b) United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

(c) United Nations Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)

(d) United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Answer