How effective will UN biodiversity agreement be in saving species at risk?

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• Judy Woodruff:

  A historic agreement was reached today at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Canada that aims to increase protections for the world's lands and oceans.

  As William Brangham reports, it comes as the planet continues to experience a staggering decline in biodiversity, driven in large part by human behavior.

• William Brangham:

  Judy, roughly 200 countries agreed today to a set of measures to try to protect and restore the vulnerable habitats that are central to life on Earth.

  Under the agreement, by 2030, world nations have pledged to protect 30 percent of the land and water considered vital for biodiversity. They will offer some $200 billion per year to help fund these initiatives. And wealthier nations will pay $30 billion annually to developing nations.

  Like many of these agreements, these are not legally binding, so how effective will this be in saving species that are at risk and protecting our lands and our waters?

  For one take on the agreement, I'm joined by Collin O'Mara. He's president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

  Collin O'Mara, thank you so much for being here.

  Before we get to this agreement, I wonder if you could help explain the extinction and biodiversity crisis that we're facing and why that matters.

  Collin O'Mara, President and CEO, National Wildlife Federation: Right now, William, there's almost a million species around the globe that we think are at heightened risk of extinction.

  We're seeing the acceleration of the rapid decline of specie populations. There's 70 percent less wildlife than there was 40 years ago. About one-third of all species just in the U.S. alone are at heightened risk of extinction.

  And, like, why we should care is, like, it's small species, like pollinators, like native bees and monarch butterflies, that are down 50 percent, 90 percent in some cases. Now, that's the way we feed ourselves. There's — the habitats that support these species provide a flood of — in terms of wetlands or forests that keep us safe.

  So, there — it's kind of — it's kind of like the canary in the coal mine. And I often say that, when you save wildlife, we save ourselves because our future is so well-linked to having healthy wildlife populations across the board.

• William Brangham:

  And what are the principal drivers of those losses?

• Collin O’Mara:

  I mean, the biggest one is really habitat loss. I mean, we have we have decimated forests around the globe. We have destroyed and — kind of a lot of wetland capacity. You think about our grasslands. You think about kind of the near-ocean environment.

  And so that level of degradation is just — it's just — it's a death sentence for a lot of species. And these species are resilient, but they still need a place to roam. So, habitat kind of destruction and then fragmentation is a big one. Another one is disease. And we're seeing more and more kind of wildlife diseases.

  And, obviously, there's a human touch to that with some of the zoonotic diseases we're seeing around the globe. There's issues with invasive species that come into a different — from — into a different landscape, all of a sudden don't have natural predators. All of a sudden, they cause challenges. There's new forms of pollution, and climate change kind of accelerates all of that.

  So, it's kind of the perfect storm for this kind of mass extinction that we're seeing rapidly accelerate.

• William Brangham:

  Right, lots of human fingerprints on this crisis as well.

  So, this 200 or so countries come together and say, OK, we are going to pledge, going forward, that we're going to try to protect 30 percent of the oceans and the lands. What do you make of this agreement?

• Collin O’Mara:

  I mean, look, I mean, it's a huge step right to have the nations of the world come together to talk about the importance of biodiversity during a time of war abroad, during a time of kind of global economic challenges and a pandemic.

  And so this is a big priority. It is a huge deal. And, at the same time, it's not enough, right? I mean, look, I mean, this was a — this is a commitment that 100 countries had made before the — before they got to Montreal for the meeting. President Biden had already signed an executive order in his first couple of weeks in office making this commitment.

  And now it's — now the key for all of us is making sure that those commitments on the page become real progress on the ground.

• William Brangham:

  I mean, as we saw with the COP climate agreements, money is always a big hangup on these.

  I mean, we know that there are nations all over the world that depend on the logging and the fishing both to feed their people, but also which exacerbate and feed this crisis. Do you think that the money that has been pledged so far is up to the task at hand?

• Collin O’Mara:

  Yes, I mean, it's a huge first step, right?

  So, having a $200 billion commitment annually by 2030 is a huge deal. The $20 to $30 billion that, like, some of the more developed economies are proposing for some of the lower income communities is a big deal. But it's not nearly enough. I mean, studies have shown we need $700 billion to $880 billion of investment a year.

  I mean, I'm in D.C., the last couple of weeks trying to advocate for more U.S. spending, which I think would make a big deal. It would help us go a long way. And so, again, it's a huge first step, but those commitments have to be real.

  And we have seen in the past in some of that climate agreements those financial agreements not really materialize after people leave the conference. And so making sure that they're real is going to be really what makes or breaks whether this is going to be a successful meeting.

• William Brangham:

  Right.

  I mean, to that exact point, the cold water to throw on this is that the last major U.N. agreement on biodiversity was, by most accounts, a bit of a bust. And this current agreement, there are no binding mechanisms in here. So, do you worry that there are instances where countries are paying lip service to this, but won't actually follow through with substantive action?

• Collin O’Mara:

  Yes, I mean, we do have a little bit of a kind of a prisoner's dilemma problem, right, where, like, everyone's kind of assuming somebody else is going to act.

  And I do think that the commitments are real, I mean, the fact we had a lot of senior leaders from different governments come in. But, at the same time, we have seen pledges that have fallen off the plate when leadership has changed in different countries. We have seen that in our country, of course.

  And so I really think is going to be important upon citizens and your viewers and NGOs to really make sure these commitments become real, because the track record isn't great. But this is really our last, best shot to try to save the full diversity of wildlife around the globe. And if we don't act with kind of the urgency, we're going to miss that, because the greatest ally of extinction at this point is inaction.

• William Brangham:

  The United States is just one of two nations that is not a signatory to the U.N. Biodiversity Convention, which is the convention that covers this agreement.

  Do you think that that harms our ability to both cajole other nations to act and our ability to act in and of ourselves?

• Collin O’Mara:

  I do, William.

  I mean, I think it's key to be at the table. I mean, it's one thing to be an observer. We can do a lot of things that are important in D.C., but, at the end of the day, there's nothing like American leadership. And that comes from being a full-blown participant.

  So, I'm hoping this is something we can sign in the years ahead and be a full-blown participant in the future.

• William Brangham:

  All right, Collin O'Mara of the National Wildlife Federation, thank you so much for being here.

• Collin O’Mara:

  Thanks, William.