Scientists have launched a six-point Emergency Recovery Plan for freshwater biodiversity; they want the plan to guide governments at the next Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference in October, and beyond. The Plan resonates greatly with WWN’s work. Most strikingly, Action Six mirrors the Resolution Minoru Kashiwagi is proposing at IUCN World Congress in June: ‘Action 6. Safeguard and restore freshwater connectivity’.
The headins of the action plan are:
Action 1. Accelerate implementation of environmental flows
Action 2. Improve water quality to sustain aquatic life
Action 3. Protect and restore critical habitats
Action 4. Manage exploitation of freshwater species and riverine aggregates
Action 5. Prevent and control nonnative species invasions in freshwater habitats
Action 6. Safeguard and restore freshwater connectivity
The authors also make recommendations for CBD targets. Three Ramsar IOPs are part of the plan (WWF, IUCN, and WWT), along with nine universities and institutes plus consultants from North America, Europe, and Australia
They say the plan ‘This plan extends the concept of species recovery plans established in legislation such as the US Endangered Species Act 1973 and the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999’.
The plan is published in the journal BioScience: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa002
There are also summaries from the participating NGOs, including WWF’s article where you can also download a PDF of the article; and WWT’s article where Director of Conservation says “Our newly published Emergency Recovery Plan presents an outline of straightforward and pragmatic solutions to the freshwater biodiversity crisis that are already proven to work”.
The lead-author David Tickner of WWF tweeted a summary saying “If we keep doing the same kind of conservation, we will lose even more wildlife from our rivers, lakes & wetlands.”
NEW: Major paper in @BioScienceAIBS…
Bending the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss – an Emergency Recovery Planhttps://t.co/TsPBRP0Nti#NewDealforNature#FreshwaterBiodiversityMatters
— David Tickner (@david_tickner) February 19, 2020
