Creating the Conditions to Reduce Biodiversity Loss
- English (Simultaneous interpretation)
- Biodiversity
At the beginning of the previous decade it was announced that the world had fallen short of fulfilling the purpose of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Strategic Plan 2002-2010, to halt biodiversity loss. Ten years later, despite progress in various areas, none of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets were fully achieved. Soon, the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will become the primary means of framing global aspirations to live in harmony with nature. Meanwhile, the adverse effects of climate change are becoming increasingly likely, global population is still increasing, and our consumption of resources continues to break record highs. However, the past decades have seen remarkable progress in other areas of development. Poverty has decreased dramatically, life expectancy has increased, fewer people are killed by natural disasters or by violent crime, and the ratio of democracies to autocracies is the highest it has ever been. What do we need to do so that biodiversity, and the environment more broadly, join in these successful trends? In this session we attempt to frame the problem and start to answer this question.
Programme Director, Biodiversity & Forests, IGES
André Mader
Programme Director, Biodiversity & Forests, IGES
André is a conservation biologist with a focus on international biodiversity policy. Before joining IGES in July 2018 he was based in Switzerland, coordinating the IPBES Regional Assessment for Europe and Central Asia. Prior to that he was based at the Secretariat of the CBD in Canada, overseeing implementation of the Convention at the subnational level. Prior to that he was responsible for the flagship “Local Action for Biodiversity” initiative at ICLEI’s Cities Biodiversity Centre in South Africa. Earlier in his career Andre’s work, in Africa and the Middle East, included capacity development of subnational government practitioners; varied ecological fieldwork; participation in the establishment of a wildlife breeding center; and management in nature reserves.
Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema
Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
She has worked with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) for over two decades and has served in various roles, including as Director of the Law Division, Deputy Director of the Ecosystems Division, and Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Elizabeth’s work at UNEP has focused on the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws at national, regional and international levels. In 2021, the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, in collaboration with UNEP, awarded Elizabeth with the Nicholas Robinson Award for Excellence in Environmental Law.
President, IGES
TAKEUCHI Kazuhiko
President, IGES
TAKEUCHI Kazuhiko graduated from the Department of Geography, the University of Tokyo in 1974. He obtained M.Agr. and Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Agriculture, the University of Tokyo. He served as a Professor at the Asian Natural Environmental Science Center, and as Professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Science at the University of Tokyo from 1997 to 2012. He also served as a Vice-Rector and Senior Vice-Rector at the United Nations University from 2008 to 2016. From 2016, he has served as a Senior Visiting Professor at United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). He was Director and Professor/Project Professor of IR3S at the University of Tokyo from 2017 to 2019. He has served as President, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) since July 2017. He took up the position as Project Professor of the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI) at the University of Tokyo in April 2019. He has served, inter alia, as Chair of the Central Environmental Council, Government of Japan, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sustainability Science (Springer Nature) and Distinguished Chair, Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi.
He specialises in landscape ecology, landscape planning, and sustainability science.
