Protecting the environment involves reducing our carbon emissions, but this is not the only issue. For several years now, the issue of biodiversity, and its importance in sustaining life on Earth, has been on the international agenda. Timidly at first, but with greater vigour since 2019. That year, IPBES, the intergovernmental scientific and political platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services, published its report on the global assessment of ecosystems, highlighting a shocking fact: one million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction out of an estimated total of eight million. This unprecedented decline is compounded each year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's biodiversity census and the publication of its red list of endangered species.

The future of future generations and the construction of a sustainable society depend intrinsically on the preservation of the world's natural heritage. Nevertheless, the IPBES notes that the current state of ecosystems and the scenarios that are emerging are compromising progress towards achieving 80% of the assessed targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In economic terms, this translates into heavy losses.

A national plan to protect nature

In 2021, the World Economic Forum ranked the loss of biodiversity and the depletion of natural resources among the five greatest risks to humanity. The United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (Cop15), held in Montreal in 2022, ended with a historic agreement to guide global action in favour of nature until 2030.

In Luxembourg, the third National Nature Conservation Plan (PNPN3) aims to work towards restoring biodiversity by 2030. Following the example of the European strategy in this area, it undertakes to ensure the legal protection, as protected areas, of 30% of the national territory and to introduce strict protection for 10% of the country's surface area. At the same time, the government has halted any deterioration in order to restore or improve the favourable conservation status of at least 30% of habitats and species. There are also plans to plant 1.7 million trees by 2030.

Local initiatives to promote biodiversity

"One of our foundation's main areas of activity is the acquisition and management of nature reserves," explains Frankie Thielen, director of Natur&ëmwelt Fondation Hëllef fir d'Natur. “To date, we own 1,800 hectares of land including wet meadows, reedbeds, dry grasslands, ponds and lakes, oak and beech coppice, hedgerows, orchards, terraced vineyards, wasteland and the valley bottoms of the Ardennes. All these environments are rich in biodiversity. These habitats are maintained and managed in collaboration with farmers, volunteers and social institution teams.”

To fund its projects, the foundation relies on donations from individuals and corporate sponsors. "We work with a number of companies that help us finance the replanting of trees and broaden our appeal to a wide audience," said Thielen. "One of our main areas of work is to transform former spruce monocultures into resilient mixed forests. This involves integrating several different species in the same area and, over time, seeing which ones will be best able to adapt to the climate change underway. More generally, we can see that more and more private-sector companies are seeking to involve their employees in actions that comply with ESG principles". The foundation also stands out for its project to preserve freshwater mussels threatened by human activity, in collaboration with Belgium and Germany.

Several biological stations, set up in the form of inter-municipal syndicates, and nature parks also play a major role in nature conservation on a national scale. "Like other players, we also run projects with farmers, with whom we sign biodiversity contracts in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment," explained Thielen, emphasising the importance of this subject, which does not stop at the country's borders.

Global Biodiversity Framework

The Global Biodiversity Framework comprises four global objectives for the protection of nature: to halt the extinction of threatened species caused by humans and to reduce the extinction rate of all species by a factor of ten by 2050; to use and manage biodiversity sustainably to ensure that nature's contributions to humanity are valued, maintained and enhanced; to share equitably the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources and information on the digital sequences of genetic resources; and to ensure that adequate means of implementation are available to all parties, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing states.

The Global Biodiversity Framework also includes 23 targets to be achieved by 2030, such as:

- the effective conservation and management of at least 30% of the world's land, coastal areas and oceans. Currently, 17% of land and 8% of marine areas are under protection;

- Restore 30% of terrestrial and marine ecosystems;

- halving global food waste;

- phasing out or reforming subsidies that harm biodiversity to the tune of at least $500 billion a year, while strengthening positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

This article was written for the ESG supplement of the July 2024 print edition of Paperjam, published on 19 June. Read the original French version here.