Asia worried about climate change, Africa about environment-development trade-off

Experts and key stakeholders from America, Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe and central Asia attending the sixth session of Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) at Medellin, Colombia, highlighted their concerns over biodiversity.

Over three years, 550 scientists have studied the biodiversity in these regions to lay out the current status of biodiversity and land quality at a global scale. These reports will be released on March 23 on a public forum.

While Asia-Pacific focused more on climate change (particularly sea-level rise, increased intensity of extreme storm events, ocean acidification and glacier retreat), the African contact group talked about challenges of trade-offs between development and biodiversity protection.

Dr. Emma Archer, co-chair of the IPBES, said, “Africa sits at a unique position in terms of development and it is well known that we have to make particular trade-offs in terms of development trajectories we want to accomplish. We have to work towards sustainable development while protecting the valuable benefits that nature provides us.”