Participation in DFFE’s 30x30 Workshop (June 2023)

Professor Alexander Paterson recently participated in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s three-day Workshop on the Implementation of the 30x30 Area-Based Target, which was held in Johannesburg in June 2023. The 30x30 area-based target is embedded in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its COP 15 held in November 2022. It basically calls on parties to ensure and enable that by 20230, “30 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs)”. The Workshop, which was attended by representatives from all conservation agencies and key relevant NGOs, explored: opportunities for area expansion in both the marine and terrestrial context; the development of an action plan for refining candidate protected areas and OECMs for immediate expansion; the development of an action plan to achieve the 30x30 target generally; the financial resources needed to realise the 30x30 target, and how to source these; and the best way to package these opportunities to access relevant resources and on the ground support. You can access a copy of the Framing Discussion Document informing the Workshop here.