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12/15/2022 02:14 PM EST
Office of the Spokesperson
The United States is committed to halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity globally. The global decline of nature represents an existential threat to livelihoods, food systems, and health. As countries meet in Montreal, Canada, at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United States reiterates its support for an ambitious and transformative Global Biodiversity Framework that enables biodiversity to thrive – and with it all life and livelihoods.
The United States is engaged globally and at home to support efforts to conserve, protect, connect, and restore nature, leading to healthy ecosystems, healthy people, and healthy economies. The United States has committed significant financial investment towards the first national conservation goal of conserving at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, including the America the Beautiful Challenge – a $1 billion public-private partnership that offers a one-stop shop to support ecosystem restoration projects that invest in watershed restoration, resilience, equitable access to nature, workforce development, corridors and connectivity, and collaborative conservation, consistent with the America the Beautiful initiative. This initiative is a decade-long challenge to pursue a locally led and voluntary nationwide effort to conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife upon which we all depend.
Taking an all-of-government approach, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Department of Transportation are coordinating on a $2 billion partnership for fish passage and culvert removal to promote the healthy functioning of our streams, rivers and aquatic ecosystems.
Internationally, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supports the conservation of wildlife and critical ecosystems in over 60 countries. In 2021, USAID invested $319.5 million to conserve biodiversity, reduce wildlife trafficking and other nature crimes, and support the resilience of vulnerable and marginalized communities who depend on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems for food, jobs, and security. USAID’s biodiversity conservation activities support objectives within USAID’s new Climate Strategy, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon storage by improving forest conservation and management, conserving coral reefs and mangroves, and driving innovative technologies.
Additional efforts to advance progress towards combating the biodiversity crisis include:
United States Leadership on Mainstreaming and Conserving Nature
– Conserving at least 30 percent of U.S. Lands and Waters by 2030: In May 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration launched the America the Beautiful initiative, a decade-long effort to support locally led and voluntary conservation and restoration efforts across the country to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises as well as address inequitable access to nature. The initiative includes the first-ever national conservation goal for the United States to conserve at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030 – a goal President Biden established when he entered office and signed Executive Order 14008 in Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Since that time, the United States has expanded administrative and legislative protections for our lands and waters. The United States continues to undertake significant conservation actions that support our national conservation goal, including protecting the Tongass National Forest; withdrawing oil and gas development from the broader Chaco Canyon Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from mineral development; designating the Connecticut National Estuarine Research reserve; expanding the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary; designating Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument; and restoring protections for Bears Ears National Monument, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
– Conserving Forests and Combatting Global Deforestation: On Earth Day 2022, President Biden signed Executive Order 14072 on Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies, which advances efforts to safeguard mature and old-growth forests on federal lands, as part of a science-based approach to reduce wildfire risk; strengthen reforestation partnerships across the country to support local economies and ensure the nation retains forest ecosystems and sustainable supplies of forest products for years to come; combat global deforestation; and enlist nature to address the climate crisis with comprehensive efforts to deploy nature-based solutions that reduce emissions and build resilience.
– Incorporating Nature into National Economic Statistics and Accounts to Support Decision-making: The United States is developing a to put nature on our nation’s balance sheet – ensuring that the natural resources all Americans enjoy and depend on are accounted for and connected to the economic decisions that affect all American people.
– Strengthening Action for Nature Deprived Communities: As part of the America the Beautiful initiative, federal agencies signed a “Memorandum of Understanding on Promoting Equitable Access to Nature in Nature-Deprived Communities” by strengthening investments in communities who have been locked out of the benefits nature provides and by expanding access to local parks, tree canopy cover, conservation areas, open space and water-based recreation, public gardens, beaches, and waterways. President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act will also supercharge these efforts with more than $12.4 billion in funds that can be accessed by nature-deprived communities to promote equitable access to parks and green and blue spaces.
Supporting Global Conservation Efforts and Combatting Drivers of Biodiversity Loss
Supporting Species and Ecosystems
– Working Bilaterally to Support Biodiversity Conservation: USAID’s international biodiversity programs, received over $319 million during FY 2021, which financed activities in more than 60 countries. USAID allocated approximately 56 percent of these funds to 13 countries and regions, including Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil, and the Central African Regional Program for the Environment. To combat wildlife trafficking, USAID invested over $55 million in FY 2021 funds to support the prevention or reduction of poaching and illegal trade in animals—including illegal fishing of freshwater and marine species. USAID’s comprehensive strategy strengthens law enforcement from parks to ports, reduces consumer demand for illegal wildlife products, and builds international cooperation. USAID invested $43.3 million in great ape conservation, including support for critical habitat for gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. USAID’s funding for biodiversity continues to grow with FY 2022 appropriated biodiversity funding set at $385 million. USAID’s forestry investments and activities promote the conservation and sustainable management of forests are part of the $9 billion pledge and partially supported through biodiversity funds. In FY 2021 these investments of biodiversity and sustainable landscape funds totaled $256.5 million in more than 50 countries, with $249.1 million focused on tropical forests. In addition, more than $32 million in other USAID funding indirectly contributed to biodiversity conservation. For example, funding streams for the protection of natural resources and the environment reduce emissions by combating deforestation and the degradation of woodlands; in addition, such programs manage and protect watersheds, fisheries, and mangrove forests.
Advancing Marine Conservation and Supporting Resilient Ecosystems
– Enhancing Ocean Ambition: During the seventh Our Ocean Conference, the United States announced more than 110 commitments, from 14 agencies and offices, worth nearly $2.6 billion, to protect ocean health and security. These commitments spanned the issue areas of the conference, including climate change, sustainable fisheries, sustainable blue economies, marine protected areas, maritime security, and marine pollution.
– High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel): At COP26, the United States announced it would join the Ocean Panel, a coalition of now 17 like-minded nations representing 50 percent of the world’s coastlines, 44 percent of its Exclusive Economic Zones, 26 percent of its fisheries, and 20 percent of its shipping fleets. This initiative is harnessing the power of the ocean to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide jobs and food security, improve climate resilience, and sustain biological diversity.
– Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA): During the seventh Our Ocean Conference in Palau, the United States announced $1 million to support ORRAA. Through this funding, the United States is supporting projects that help coastal communities improve their resilience to the impacts of climate change, including through the deployment of the Coastal Risk Index (CRI), which calculates and maps the protective benefits of mangroves and coral reefs for integrating the value of these coastal ecosystems into risk insurance models.
– IUU Fishing Action Alliance: Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing threatens the health and biodiversity of our ocean and hurts coastal communities that depend on sustainably managed fisheries for food security and livelihoods. On the margins of the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, the United States joined Canada and the United Kingdom to launch the IUU Fishing Action Alliance. Countries and non-state partners that join the Alliance pledge to take urgent action to improve the monitoring, control, and surveillance of fisheries, increase transparency in fishing fleets and in the seafood market, and build new partnerships that will close the net on bad actors.
Supporting Inclusive Conservation Efforts
– Working with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities: Indigenous Peoples manage 25 percent of terrestrial land which intersects with 40 percent of the world’s protected areas and remaining intact ecosystems. Research has demonstrated that Indigenous Peoples are extremely effective at conserving biodiversity. USAID supports the leadership of Indigenous Peoples by contributing to the $1.7 billion Forest Tenure Pledge for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities which reported at COP27 that it already had $320 million from the 23 donors in the first of five years of the Pledge. USAID is also partnering with the Forest Stewardship Council and the FSC Indigenous Foundation to implement the 5-year, $20 million, Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance for Rights and Development program which works to amplify the voices of Indigenous leaders and provide capacity building and funding for Indigenous Peoples’ self-determined development needs. This year, the Department of State launched the Indigenous Peoples Finance Access Facility (IPFAF) with the goal of providing support to Indigenous Peoples groups around the world to directly access existing finance mechanisms, supporting their efforts to continue to conserve some of the most critical forests on earth.
– Supporting Environmental Defenders: Civil society support is crucial to achieving biodiversity goals, particularly the efforts of environmental defenders, who try peacefully to protect an area or natural resources from negative environmental impact. The United States actively monitors UN and NGO reports of increasing violence against environmental defenders and formed an interagency working group in 2017 to monitor this violence. The United States takes reports of killings and threats against all human rights defenders, including those exercising their human rights when working to protect the environment, seriously, and advocates for protection measures and access to justice, working with democratic partners, international and regional organizations, NGOs, business, and engaged citizens.
Promoting Healthy Communities and a Healthy Planet
– Promoting a One Health Approach and Combatting Zoonotic Disease: The United States is heavily engaged in global efforts to promote a One Health approach and address issues at the nexus of human, animal (wild and domestic), and environmental health, including climate sensitive diseases and zoonotic spillover. For example, via the Mekong-US Partnership, the U.S. Department of State has supported the Pathfinder Health Program and the Mekong One Health Innovation Partnership, which focused on One Health issues. Through the Embassy Science Fellows program, the Department has supported the development of a South America Network for One Health. Via the Arctic Council, the Department has led a decade-long effort to bolster circumpolar efforts to address emerging infectious disease and natural disasters in the Arctic region. USAID’s Global Health Security Program collaborates with partner countries to implement the One Health approach, supports One Health coordinating mechanisms and platforms to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging threats, and engages in other One Health activities to improve global health security. In addition, a long-running USAID partnership began a new phase focused on pandemic risk reduction in July 2020, working to strengthen the knowledge base, resolve and cooperation of governments, the private sector, IGOs and NGOs to address zoonotic disease risks associated with wildlife trade. The partnership’s analysis of the public health threat posed by particular species and trade practices is now informing policy discussions, business practices, supply chain management, and behavior change communications, to collectively reduce supply of and demand for risky wildlife products.
– Securing Water Resources: S. prosperity and national security are under rising pressure from the economic and social effects of water scarcity, extreme weather events and climate change, and water-driven ecological change in key geographies around the world. With increasing frequency, water-driven stresses are undermining economic productivity, weakening governance systems, and fraying social cohesion in many countries throughout the world. The Department of State is committed to realizing a water-secure world that advances health, prosperity, stability, and resilience through sustainable and equitable water resources management and access to safe drinking water, sanitation services, and hygiene. State and USAID revised and published a 5-year Global Water Strategy, a whole-of-government effort covering at least $1 billion in foreign assistance activities, with a strong focus on climate change, reducing conflict, and promoting cooperation.
Advancing Science-based Decision Making
– The United States is a strong supporter of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and was instrumental in its establishment in 2012. We are celebrating IPBES’ 10-year anniversary by reaffirming our commitment to advancing science and the role of science in decision-making. The United States has also worked in IPBES to advance the inclusion of indigenous peoples and local communities and incorporation, with their consent, of indigenous and local knowledge into the IPBES assessments.
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