We were not fans of large international meetings, usually instruments for consolidating hegemony without benefit to developing countries, but the one that closed recently on December 19 in Montreal, called COP 15 or the World Summit on Biological Diversity, was particularly transcendental. for Ecuador, appreciated as a megadiverse country with thousands of species, mostly endemic or typical for this place, whose gradual extinction due to global warming must be avoided.

At the end of the exhausting work, the 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) signed a new Global Framework whose main goal is to protect at least 30% of land and sea waters that are habitats for living things, which in the colloquial dictionary of the United Nations (UN) is described as 30 x 30. By the year 2030, after twelve days of intense negotiations in which 15,000 delegates from governments, non-governmental organizations and academies participated, they established 23 goals that, if achieved, would achieve the preservation of biodiversity by that cabalistic year of 2030.

The event was chaired by the People’s Republic of China, which was initially reluctant to engage in a topic that required it, but finally got on board with firm promises such as materializing funding, accepting significant resource mobilization for developing countries of $20,000 million per year by 2025 .; and from there, at least 30,000 million by 2030 to add 200,000 million. In a strong and impact-oriented way, women and girls will be guaranteed a share in the benefits of conservation plans.

The flow of resources that will arise as a result of international agreements must be used…

The document contains strong and binding conditions, favoring excluded minorities, respecting the rights of indigenous peoples, valuing the knowledge of their ancestors, assigning the place they deserve and corresponds to women in all environmental preservation processes. For Ecuador, it is particularly transcendental because of its proven megadiversity status in relation to its limited extension, which, however, already presents a long list of animal and plant species threatened with extinction.

It is a concern of the highest political level shown by President Guillermo Lasso in his first presentation in the National Assembly when he said: “Ecuador is the most compact and diverse country in the world…”, alluding to the favorable coexistence of four schemes, the sea coast, the Andean Sierra , the eastern jungle and the Galapagos Islands, respecting the international resolutions that stipulate climate agreements and with greater force the present on biological diversity.

The flow of resources that will arise as a result of international agreements must be used, directing them to individuals, plants and animals that are in serious danger of extinction. For this purpose, there are many and consistent studies of varieties, locations and amounts, establishing detailed monitoring and supervision by the same authorities that yesterday as now declared the importance of preserving Ecuador’s rich biodiversity. (OR)