“Currently, most countries are spending orders of magnitude more funds subsidising activities that destroy biodiversity than we are spending on conserving it – this will have to change,” he said. The United Nations wants countries to commit to protecting 30% of their land by 2030, a pledge already agreed to by the United States and others. He said the global pandemic had injected new urgency into biodiversity protection, but warned that this was not yet reflected in “business-as-usual” post-COVID-19 stimulus measures. “We have to make sure… (the stimulus) is strengthening biodiversity and not adding to the problem,” he said. “Globally, if you look around, the stimulus packages are making it worse rather than better.”Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman

Source: Egypt Independent October 10, 2021 05:15 UTC