The collapse of biodiversity is an "existential threat" for the world, warned French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne when presenting France’s latest biodiversity strategy, which follows two other plans whose goals have yet to be attained. She promised "radical" results without "brutal" measures.
"The collapse of biodiversity is so strong, so quick and so widespread that we are threatened by a sixth general extinction," Borne said Monday when presenting the final version of France's national biodiversity strategy, with 40 measures to implement by 2030.
“The collapse of biodiversity is an existential threat to our societies. We must rapidly contain it and strongly reverse the trend."
Some of the main measures are the creation of protected areas and the planting of a million trees and 50,000 kilometres of hedges.
The strategy lays out France’s commitment to the COP15 biodiversity agreement signed in December 2022, which aims to protect 30 percent of the world's land and seas and restore 30 percent of degraded ecosystems.
This is France’s third biodiversity plan – the goals of the first two have not been attained – and Borne said the goal is the same: “radical results without brutal measures”.
"It’s a very operational and concrete plan, with 200 actions with followup points to be evaluated,” France’s junior Minister for Biodiversity, Sarah El Haïry, told the AFP news agency. “It is not just big words.”
Blind spot
Included in the 40 measures are the restoration of prairies, which serve as carbon sinks, and addressing under-water pollution.
The government would like ten percent of France’s territory "strongly protected", up from 4.2 percent in 2023.
All actors, including the private sector, must be involved in protecting France’s biodiversity, said El Haïry, because “today biodiversity is the blind spot for the economic world”.
Environmental campaigners have criticised the strategy for not going far enough and addressing the PAC common agriculture policy, which provides 6.5 billion euros of subsidies to farmers who se practices are harmful to biodiversity.
El Haïry said the the goal is to "progressively eliminate these harmful subsidies," and the agriculture and economy ministries are working on a plan to “support the ecological transition".
(with AFP)
