30 by 30 | Tomohiro Ichinose, Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies
2021.12.14
Are you familiar with the phrase in the title, 30 by 30? It is read as "thirty by thirty." It is a goal to protect at least 30% of the Earth's land and sea areas as nature conservation areas by 2030. The 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (so-called COP26), held in Glasgow, UK, this past November, was frequently reported on, but 30 by 30 is a target related to the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). With China as the chair, Part 1 of COP15 was held in October, and Part 2 is scheduled to be held from the end of April to May of next year.
In 2010, COP10 was held in Nagoya, where the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, a set of goals for 2020, were adopted. Since the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is held every two years, COP15 was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 to adopt the next set of targets, but it was postponed for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aichi Biodiversity Targets consist of 20 goals, but most countries, including Japan, failed to achieve them by 2020. While global climate change has garnered significant attention, the loss of biodiversity is also an urgent issue for the survival of humanity. The 30 by 30 initiative is proposed to put the brakes on the rate of species extinction, with the goal of securing at least 30% of areas for nature conservation. It is considered highly likely to become a global target at COP15, which will be discussed next year.
What is the situation in Japan? Currently, Japan's nature conservation areas cover 20.5% of its land and 13.3% of its sea areas. This means that in the next eight years or so, we must add another 10% on land and 17% at sea. For sea areas, it will likely involve expanding conservation areas into zones that were not previously protected, but increasing the land area by 10% is not easy. A concept being discussed as a potential key to achieving this goal is OECM. This is an acronym for "Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures," and while there is no established Japanese translation yet, it is used to mean something like "areas that are not designated as nature conservation areas but where nature is effectively conserved." For example, it refers to areas that contribute to nature conservation as a result of other activities, such as the many organisms found in environments shaped by agriculture, like those known assatoyama. Discussions on how to position these OECMs to advance biodiversity conservation began last fiscal year at the Ministry of the Environment, and I am participating as a member of the review committee.
Regarding climate change, companies are now required to achieve carbon neutrality, and responding to the requests of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has become an urgent matter. Discussions on biodiversity are also rapidly advancing abroad, and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) was launched this summer. Although biodiversity is not as well-known in Japan as climate change, I hope you will also pay attention to the COP15 negotiations early next fiscal year.