A global coalition of biodiversity scientists is calling for the 2030 deadline not to be abandoned in the COP15 negotiations.

At the UN Biodiversity Conference (CoP15), happening now in Montreal, Canada, delegates from 196 countries are negotiating a new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to attempt to halt the rapid destruction of species worldwide.

Researchers, conservationists, and the public across the world are calling for this agreement to include ambitious goals to “Halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity and put nature on a path to recovery by 2030“. However, some actors have proposed that the target to halt and begin to reverse biodiversity loss should not be time-bound, as some components of biodiversity, such as trees or elephants, take decades to grow to maturity.

A global coalition of biodiversity scientists say that such a proposal would significantly weaken the ambition of the Global Biodiversity Framework, and reduce the pressure to reduce key drivers of biodiversity loss.

They have signed a statement urging that the 2030 deadline is not abandoned in the COP15 negotiations.

Read the statement and see all signatures on the Earth Commission website:

Watch the press conference with David Obura, Tanya Steele, and Henry Grub: