UN proposal calls to protect 30 percent of Earth by 2030 as species face extinction

A draft plan released Monday by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity called on world governments to take steps to protect 30 percent of lands and oceans worldwide by the end of the decade in the face of rising climate change.

The plan advises putting at least 10 percent of the land and sea under “strict protection” and reducing nutrient and plastic pollution by at least half.

“The theory of change for the framework acknowledges the need for appropriate recognition of gender equality, women’s empowerment, youth, gender-responsive approaches and the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the implementation of this framework,” it says.

“Further, it is built upon the recognition that its implementation will be done in partnership with many organizations at the global, national and local levels to leverage ways to build a momentum for success. It will be implemented by taking a rights-based approach and recognizing the principle of intergenerational equity,” it adds.

The framework will be taken up at an October summit in China and could replace the largely unachieved goals agreed to in 2010.

The plan comes amid devastating Australian fires that have killed an estimated 1 billion animals.

Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, chief program officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that the language in the 2030 framework was “not ambitious enough,” according to HuffPost.

“We are witnessing whole swaths of a continent burning ― devastating entire species before our eyes ― and the need for dramatic change could not be more blatant,” she said in a statement. “To reverse the cataclysmic changes occurring in nature, countries around the globe must heed scientists, who warn that heading off this rapid decline will require transformative action.”