A growing global push to safeguard nature by pledging to protect about a third of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 will fall short unless biodiversity-rich Southeast Asian nations get behind the ambitious proposal, environmentalists have warned.
Leaders of the G7 wealthy nations this month backed a coalition of about 60 countries that have already promised to conserve at least 30 percent of their land and oceans by 2030 (30×30) to curb climate change and the loss of plant and animal species.
Cambodia is the only Southeast Asian nation to have signed up to the goal so far, although it has been endorsed by countries in other parts of Asia-Pacific, including Japan, Pakistan and the Maldives.
Brian O’Donnell, director of the US-based Campaign for Nature, which is calling on world leaders to back the pledge, said it was “very important” to get governments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on board.
“Given the incredible biodiversity in the region, much of which is facing pressure, ASEAN countries are a key voice to support 30×30,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Southeast Asian countries cover just 3 percent of the Earth’s surface but are home to three of the world’s 17 “megadiverse” countries — Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, according to the Campaign for Nature.
These “megadiverse” nations have been identified by conservationists as being the richest in species, in a bid to raise awareness and spur protection efforts.
Southeast Asia’s land and ocean contain 35 percent of mangrove forests and 30 percent of coral reefs, while more than 2,000 animal and plant species have been discovered there over the past two decades.
The region is also home to about 18 percent of the world’s endangered species, according to the Campaign for Nature.
In Indonesia, for example, the Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve is a high-priority conservation area and critical wildlife habitat, dubbed the “orangutan capital of the world”, while the endangered pygmy elephants live in the rainforests of Borneo.
