Daniel Cáceres Bartra

Here at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), I’ve noticed something that deserves much more attention.

We often use the word “protection” to describe two very different approaches:

1.Preventive protection: Protecting ecosystems from threats that may arise in the future.

2. Threat-reducing protection: Reducing or eliminating the pressures already driving biodiversity loss today.

Both matter. But they are NOT the same.

We can establish millions of hectares of protected areas in places with little human activity, preventing potential future threats, while doing little to address the fishing pressure, habitat destruction, and other threats already affecting biodiversity elsewhere.

And here’s the problem: It’s often easier to protect areas where little is happening than to confront the activities already causing ecological damage.

That’s why the implementation of global 30x30 targets in countries must go beyond expanding protected area coverage. We need to measure how many threats we are preventing, and overall how many existing pressures we are ACTUALLY reducing, to know what ecological outcomes we are achieving.

Because stopping what’s destroying, or damaging ecosystems today it today is just as urgent. 🌊🌿 thank you @barranquilla20 for hosting this amazing panel

#BiodiversityFirst #CBDCOP17 #30x30 #MarineConservation ProtectedAreas Biodiversity OceanConservation NatureProtection