Janez Potočnik and Izabella Teixeira met more than a decade ago at a gathering of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan. They were there as negotiators hoping to set clear targets that might safeguard the natural world. Potočnik was the former European Commissioner for Environment and Science and Teixeira served six years as Brazil’s environment minister. Each understood the stakes as they advocated for science-based principles to guide political action.
Now, as co-chairs of the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel, they are continuing that work. They recently co-authored Building Biodiversity: The Natural Resource Management Approach, a report designed to help countries appreciate nature and assess the economic value of ecosystem services. They recently met with UNEP to discuss the study and the massive international effort needed to halt biodiversity loss.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): Biodiversity is crucial to the survival of humanity. So, why do we have such a poor understanding of the value of plants, animals and the rest of the natural world?
Izabella Teixeira: When you look at countries with natural assets, like Brazil, the assumption is you can extract without limits. This culture is very hard to change.
Janez Potočnik: Our unsustainable engagement with nature can be traced to both an institutional failure and the failure of contemporary economics to acknowledge that we are embedded in nature and not somehow external to it. We have to understand that biodiversity is life, our life included.
UNEP: You’ve said natural resource management is critical to limiting climate change. But the global demand for raw materials is expected to double by 2060. Clearly, this discrepancy must be reconciled, but how?
Potočnik: We need to de-couple human well-being and economic growth from the (increased) use of natural resources. It is important that we begin to shift from the standard economic model of maximizing production to meeting human needs. For instance, we don’t need cars, we need mobility. We don’t need refrigerators, we need healthy and chilled food. We don’t need pesticides, we need plants that are protected from pests. If you approach things from the perspective of human needs, you arrive at models that could be much more respectful to natural resources.
Teixeira: Based on natural resource management approaches, decision makers can apply four principles to turning biodiversity loss into biodiversity value: know your true impact, plan together, grow with nature and value nature.
UNEP: The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework aims to set ambitious targets to protect the natural world. But we have failed before with a similar effort, the Aichi Targets, and are struggling to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. How can the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework succeed where others have failed?
Potočnik: We believe it is essential to address the drivers of biodiversity loss, and this also is the best way to simultaneously address environmental issues, like climate change and pollution. It is essential to re-focus from profit maximization to long-term sustainable living, and understand that through the continued depletion of nature, we are impacting future generations – and that is absolutely not fair.
Teixeira: There is also a need to put a political and economic value on biodiversity. To me, this is a big challenge, bigger than climate change. Nature is not there just to be used. Instead, it is a political and economic asset for everyone around the world to benefit from.
UNEP: You were a government minister and you understand the political realities of change. How difficult will it be for governments to take on this new environmental agenda as part of their mandate?
Potočnik: Building ownership, trust, taking all on board – that is always important in politics. You have to move step by step, you have to create critical mass, and then a critical moment arrives and suddenly your agenda is taken on board. Understanding economics was extremely helpful for me because sometimes those arguments were the ones that worked best. In many countries, Europe included, they are realizing that economic development and environmental protection are not in contradiction. In fact, that combination is actually a pre-condition for future beneficial economic results.
Question: What impact has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the Global Biodiversity Framework and will it delay or alter the timetable going forward?
Teixeira: We need to understand better the challenges for global environmental governance. We have a huge opportunity to make clear how we are connected, to make clear the importance of food and water and nature preserves, to make clear the value of environmental services. There are no new normals, just new futures. Our world is changing all the time and there’s no reason now to believe that it will stop. The challenges that lie ahead are serious and we need to learn from the experiences we are currently going through.
Potočnik: I fear we are focusing on the consequences rather than the causes of the pandemic, relieving the pain without curing the disease. The mismanagement of biodiversity in the past was identified by science as a likely core reason for the COVID-19 crisis. Many believe the world after COVID-19 will not be the same but, unfortunately, I fear it will be the same. We need to re-think the way we are managing risks as individuals, as private companies, as policy makers. Locally and globally, we must collaborate more and build resilient societies because we are so interconnected.
The United Nations General Assembly has declared the years 2021 through 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Decade is designed to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It will draw together political support, scientific research and financial muscle to scale up restoration with the goal of reviving millions of hectares of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Explore UNEP’s work on preserving ecosystems, including forests, coastlines, peatlands and coral reefs. Find out more on the UN Decade of Restoration here.
