After the 15th Biodiversity Conference
How much biodiversity can there be?
Switzerland is committed to doubling the protected areas for biodiversity. The farmers’ association criticizes this as “disproportionate”.
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For St. Gallen Central National Councilor Markus Ritter, the “30 by 30” strategy is disproportionate and not effective.
Industrialized agriculture produces food, but also problems: extinction of species, overburdened arable land, pollution of the groundwater. In 1993, therefore, the UN organized the first global conference on the protection of biological diversity.
The UN therefore held the 15th global conference on the protection of biological diversity in Montreal, Canada, which ended on Monday. The participating countries, including Switzerland, agreed on the “30 by 30” goal: They undertake, among other things, to make 30 percent of their land available for biodiversity and to restore a further 30 percent of all damaged landscapes – this could, for example, be the reforestation of deforested forests , renaturing rivers or restoring peatlands.
Restriction on tourism and agriculture
Today, Switzerland’s protected area is 13.4 percent of the country’s total area. The fact that this area is to be more than doubled puts Markus Ritter (55), Central Member of the National Council and President of the Farmers’ Association, in a mood of alarm. “Such a promise is completely disproportionate for Switzerland. The Federal Council wants to make 30 percent of the country’s area binding in the cantons’ structure plans as biodiversity areas. Agriculture, tourism, trade, energy production would be massively restricted. »
Green National Councilor Kilian Baumann (42) has a different opinion: “This goal makes sense in principle, because areas must also be returned to nature for sustainable promotion of biodiversity. In the long term, this will increase our security of supply.”
The Federal Office for the Environment is also satisfied. “The robust and ambitious target framework for global biodiversity adopted at the conference represents a great success.”
The agency is now considering a strategy to achieve other goals as well, including fighting pesticides and crop protection products that contain dangerous chemicals. “At the conference, it was agreed that the risks emanating from pesticides should be reduced by 50 percent by 2030.”