Protected areas and ecosystem services

In the field of biodiversity conservation, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), with its four long-term goals and 23 targets, was adopted in December 2002 by a total of 195 countries, building on the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The overall goal of the GBF is to halt and reverse the loss of natural habitats and biodiversity by 2030. Among other things, the new framework aims to ensure that, by 2030, at least 30 per cent of the world's terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas have the protection they need for conservation and restoration through well-connected and equitably managed systems of protected areas.

The aim here is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems and ensure their sustainable management, so as to achieve a net increase in terms of the area, connectivity and integrity of natural ecosystems by 2030. Adaptation measures are also to be implemented as well as the landscape approach. These approaches ensure that conflicting land use interests and land use demands are balanced out in order to account for human wellbeing and the environment in equal measure. In particular, this affects those regions that exhibit a high level of biological diversity and which provide important ecosystem services.

The IKI approaches

Projects of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) help their partners to establish, expand, consolidate and connect protected areas, and ensure their effective management, while also restoring degraded habitats. One important aspect here is the involvement of local and indigenous communities, so that protective measures can be designed as participative and sustainable solutions. IKI projects work with these communities to develop strategies for the protection and sustainable use of the ecosystems and biological resources that provide them with their livelihoods.

This work also focusses on making use of indigenous and local knowledge, and ensuring the continued application of past good practice. In terms of IKI contributions and targets, the importance of enlarging the area protected and ensuring better ecosystem networking is matched by a need to increase the quality of this protection and maintain it over the long term.