President meets members of Global Steering Committee of campaign for nature

President Cyril Ramaphosa received a courtesy call yesterday, Friday, 22 April 2022, by members of the Global Steering Committee of the Campaign  for Nature.
 
The delegation included His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, Former President of Sierra Leone; His Excellency Hailemariam Desalegn, Former Prime  Minister of Ethiopia, and His Excellency Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Former Prime Minister of Uganda.
 
The members of the Global Steering Committee expressed condolences at the loss of life and property during recent severe weather events and flooding in KwaZulu-Natal.
 
The Campaign for Nature under the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People is an advocacy platform with the central aim of a “30x30” goal to protect 30 per cent of the land and 30 per cent of the sea by 2030.
 
The coalition also calls on leaders to help mobilise financial resources to ensure protected areas are properly managed, and to approach biodiversity conservation in a way that fully integrates and respects indigenous leadership and indigenous rights.
 
President Ramaphosa, the immediate past Coordinator of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), welcomed the Global Steering Committee members and reiterated South Africa’s commitment to the protection of the country’s rich biodiversity and that of the region, as well as mitigation of the impact of climate change.
 
The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) also referred to as the New Deal for People with Nature to be agreed to at the 15th Conference of Parties in Kunming, China, in September 2022, contains 4 goals and 21 targets in the current draft version.
 
South Africa supports and welcomes all targets in the Global Biodiversity Framework and recognises the need for ambitious targets, including for Target 3, which is commonly known as 30x30.
 
Our country understands that that the Post 2020 Global Diversity Framework is developed at a time when the world faces unprecedented environmental challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change.
 
The GBF must therefore be ambitious to ensure it contributes to significantly halting biodiversity loss and puts biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030.
 
Accordingly, South Africa is committed to effective protection, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity inside and outside protected areas and effective engagement of communities, building community capacity, addressing poverty and unemployment, inequality and incentivising conservation
efforts.
 
 
Media enquiries: Tyrone Seale, Acting Spokesperson to the President 083 575 7440/media@presidency.gov.za 
 
Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria