CALI, Colombia (October 30, 2024) — Within the framework of COP16, Audubon, BirdLife, and the Growth Financial institution of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) have offered the progress of the Americas Flyways Initiative (AFI) as a part of their imaginative and prescient and dedication to guard, preserve, and restore nature and handle biodiversity loss and the local weather change disaster.
After two years of rigorous science-based design, AFI strikes into its implementation part in 2025 to guard and restore crucial ecosystems by Nature-Based mostly Options (NBS) and bird- and people-friendly infrastructure.
Impressed by the wondrous world of birds and their epic migratory journeys throughout the hemisphere that join landscapes, cultures, and folks, AFI’s science workforce has recognized a portfolio of crucial sites to make sure the connectivity and conservation of not less than 10% of the prioritized populations of migratory shorebirds and land birds within the Americas.
Birds are an excellent bio-indicator of the well being of nature. They inform us the issue and the answer: the place and the way we have to act. In the event you shield birds, you shield life. For instance, 85% of the essential websites for fowl conservation in Colombia coincide with key areas for water regulation and local weather change mitigation.
Due to this fact, actions aimed on the conservation, restoration and sustainable administration of ecosystems and their biodiversity are an obligation and duty of all sectors, as they’re the elemental foundation for our societies to live on and prosper. Thankfully, a lot of the reply to the problem of channeling funding in favor of biodiversity is to be present in nature itself.
In opposition to this backdrop, at COP15 in Montreal, the Nationwide Audubon Society, BirdLife Worldwide and the Growth Financial institution of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) made a dedication and laid the foundations for a strategic, transformative, and visionary alliance that can mobilize, by a complete monetary mechanism, funding in favor of nature and the communities that rely on it.
The Americas Flyways Initiative (AFI) is a symbiosis for prosperity that mixes cutting-edge utilized science and agile monetary mechanisms to sustainably handle greater than 30 landscapes and seascapes by 2050, mobilizing between $3 trillion {dollars} and 5 trillion {dollars}.
AFI at the moment has 5 preliminary tasks, also called nest projects, whose title was impressed by the traits of those pure buildings linked to shelter, improvement, and well-being.
-
Enchancment of coastal local weather resilience within the Rocuant Andalién Wetland in Chile;
-
Restoration of montane forest landscapes and aquatic ecosystems within the northwestern Andes in Ecuador;
-
Integration of bird-friendly practices within the transmission and distribution traces that attain the coast of Guayas, Ecuador;
-
Incorporation of bird-friendly structure and design at CAF headquarters in Panama Metropolis;
-
Information sharing on greatest practices on the Iona Fraser River Wastewater Remedy Plant on Iona Island, British Columbia.
To advise and information challenge structurers in designing and implementing proposals that mix conservation and sustainable improvement, AFI additionally offered four guides, understood as practical and strategic tools.
-
Information 1: Excessive biodiversity and carbon-dense ecosystems.
-
Information 2: Water safety: consuming water, sanitation, and entry to irrigation.
-
Information 3: Coastal administration.
-
Information 4: Infrastructure.
AFI’s relevance facilities on the premise that conservation with out funding is speak. With out agile and sustainable monetary assets, efficient conservation, safety, and restoration of nature can’t be achieved. There may be an financial hole between $598 billion and $824 billion per 12 months to articulate actions to handle the local weather disaster and biodiversity loss.
One of many major aims to be achieved at COP16 is to make progress on the small print and mechanisms for use to satisfy target 19 of the World Biodiversity Framework: to realize the annual mobilization of not less than $200 billion by 2030. Of this quantity, not less than $30 billion is anticipated to be targeted on growing nations, which are sometimes most affected by the impacts of local weather change and the detriment of wildlife and biodiversity loss.
As of this writing, eight governments have indicated they are going to present $163 million for the World Biodiversity Fund (GBFF) to implement the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework. Whereas this can be a step ahead, it’s nonetheless incipient given the magnitude of what’s required and our context.
The safety and sustainable use of the providers and assets we obtain from nature isn’t solely a duty of the naturalist or scientific neighborhood. Greater than half of the world’s economic system is dependent upon the advantages offered by nature: clear water and air, fertile soils, meals, medicines, and uncooked supplies, amongst others. Greater than half of the world’s GDP is reasonably or extremely depending on nature and its providers. Consequently, this determine is linked to the dangers and impacts of the destruction of nature.
Apppointments:
Elizabeth Grey, Audubon’s chief government officer, highlighted the significance of the initiative. “We’re working collectively to guard 30 landscapes and seascapes on this huge area. That is important to advertise nature-based options and sustainable improvement. The Americas is likely one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, and we’ve a lot to do to handle each the biodiversity and local weather crises.“
Martin Harper, CEO of BirdLife Worldwide, thanked and acknowledged the groups from the three organizations for his or her exhausting work in getting thus far. “We’re constructing one thing extraordinary to unite conservation efforts throughout the Americas. This initiative is already inspiring related tasks in different main flyways worldwide.“
Sergio Díaz Granados, CAF’s government president, recalled the financial institution’s efforts to turn into the area’s inexperienced financial institution, together with rising its capital to handle the local weather emergency. “Biodiversity loss is one in all our most pressing issues. Mitigating and adapting isn’t a selection however a duty we should fulfill. We’ve got collaborated with establishments resembling Audubon and BirdLife to shut conservation gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean.“
Media Contacts: Santiago Aparicio, santiago.aparicio@audubon.org; Lucía Rodríguez, lucia.rodriguez@birdlife.org; Mauricio Velasquez, Senior Govt, CAF – mvelasquez@caf.com
About Audubon
The Nationwide Audubon Society protects birds and the locations they want, right this moment and tomorrow. Audubon works all through the Americas utilizing science, advocacy, schooling, and on-the-ground conservation. State packages, nature facilities, chapters, and companions give Audubon an unparalleled wingspan that reaches thousands and thousands of individuals every year to tell, encourage, and unite numerous communities in conservation motion. A nonprofit conservation group since 1905, Audubon believes in a world during which folks and wildlife thrive.
