December, 06 2022, 12:18pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
August Rick, Greenpeace East Asia, (august.rick@greenpeace.org)
Greenpeace International Press Desk, pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org
All Eyes on Montreal: COP15 Is the Make-Or-Break Moment for Global Biodiversity
Greenpeace calls for clear recognition of Indigenous Rights in an ambitious global biodiversity framework as COP15 - the COP for biodiversity - starts two weeks of negotiations to agree upon a global framework to shape the protection of nature over the next decade and into the future.
COP15 will only be successful if the final text of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework includes:
WASHINGTON
Greenpeace calls for clear recognition of Indigenous Rights in an ambitious global biodiversity framework as COP15 - the COP for biodiversity - starts two weeks of negotiations to agree upon a global framework to shape the protection of nature over the next decade and into the future.
COP15 will only be successful if the final text of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework includes:
- Explicit recognition for Indigenous Peoples and local communities' rights and central roles in protecting biodiversity globally, including prior and informed consent,
- An ambitious global target to protect at least 30% of land and 30% of seas by 2030,
- Clear tools and measures as well as equitable financing for the implementation of targets.
- Internationally, at least $100 billion USD should be provided annually by developed countries for developing countries. This international support should be primarily based on public sources and avoid double counting climate finance.
Detailed briefing on Greenpeace's COP15 demands.
Dinamam Tuxa, Executive Coordinator for the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil said:
"It is impossible to talk about biodiversity conservation without mentioning Indigenous Lands. Globally, areas managed by Indigenous Peoples are among the most conserved, even though we, Indigenous Peoples, represent a small part of the population. However, we remain outside the decision-making process and without our rights to our territories. We hope that this COP15 will recognize our rights and that it will create more space for our official participation."
Greenpeace East Asia senior policy advisor Li Shuo said:
"It is unacceptable for this process to continue to pump out promises and never deliver. COP15 is a chance for reinvention. Negotiations over the next two weeks need to generate targets that will actually be implemented and supported. The Chinese Presidency and joint leadership from all Parties can deliver this through careful planning towards an ambitious roadmap."
Greenpeace Canada Executive Director Lagi Toribau said:
"COP15 is a chance to create a systematic shift in the global fight to protect biodiversity. Biodiversity is the network that supports all life, including humanity. And protecting biodiversity globally should first and foremost support the communities that are protecting nature, forests, and oceans at the frontlines. COP15 can deliver the tools to do that globally. On the ground, this can look different for different countries. In Canada, for example, we call for a Nature & Biodiversity Act centered around Indigenous Rights."
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
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'Justice Is Delayed' as Judges OK Rigged South Carolina Map for Elections
"I'm disappointed it appears 30,000 people lost their political voice and nobody seems to care," said one Democratic congressional candidate from the affected district.
Mar 28, 2024
Voting rights defenders on Thursday decried a federal panel's
decision to let South Carolina use a congressional map the three judges found to be racially gerrymandered in this year's primary and general elections due to the U.S. Supreme Court's delayed resolution of the case.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for South Carolina in Columbia ruled last August that "race was the predominant motivating factor" in the Republican-controlled state Legislature's design of the 1st Congressional District "and that traditional districting principles subordinated to race."
Their ruling, which ordered the redrawing of the map, noted that "Charleston County was racially gerrymandered and over 30,000 African Americans were removed from their home district."
"Make no mistake—these discriminatory maps are a direct attempt to suppress Black voices ahead of a consequential election."
In their new decision, the judges acknowledged the awkward predicament of ordering the use of an unconstitutional map.
"But with the primary election procedures rapidly approaching, the appeal before the Supreme Court still pending, and no remedial plan in place, the ideal must bend to the practical," they asserted.
Brenda Murphy, president of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, said: "Make no mistake—these discriminatory maps are a direct attempt to suppress Black voices ahead of a consequential election. We will not stand idly by as the rights of thousands of South Carolinians continue to be overlooked."
"The court's ruling today, further delaying these proceedings, continues to tip the scale of justice during a crucial moment in our democracy in an undemocratic attempt to sway the outcome of the upcoming election," Murphy added. "We must strive for a system where every voice is heard and every vote counts, free from the stain of discrimination."
Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case, which was filed in 2021 by the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and voter Taiwan Scott. They are represented by the ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the ACLU of South Carolina, Boroughs Bryant LLC, Arnold & Porter, and the General Counsel's Office of the NAACP.
As Democracy Docket noted Thursday: "The parties asked the Supreme Court for a decision by January 1, 2024. Nearly three months later, the court still hasn't ruled on the case, creating a dire situation for congressional candidates as the candidate filing period started on March 16 and will end on Monday."
Joshua Douglas, a professor at the University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law, said on social media that "someone should write an article about the number of times jurisdictions have been allowed to use an illegal map because there's 'not enough time' to create a fair, legal one."
Douglas noted states where this has occurred, including Alabama, Louisiana, Ohio, North Carolina, "and now South Carolina."
South Carolina primary voters will head to the polls on June 11.
The 1st Congressional District is represented by Congresswoman Nancy Mace, a Republican. On Thursday, she toldThe Post and Courier that the judges' ruling "makes sense."
"It's only fair candidates know what the lines are," Mace said. "For us, I just want to know what constituents I'm serving."
Michael B. Moore, a Democrat running for the seat, called the decision "regrettable."
"I'm disappointed it appears 30,000 people lost their political voice," he said, "and nobody seems to care."
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"Imperiled plants and animals do not have the time for half-measures, since extinction is forever," one expert warned.
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While welcoming efforts by President Joe Biden's administration to undo Trump-era damage to endangered species protections, conservationists warned Thursday that three new federal rules are inadequate, given the world's worsening biodiversity crisis.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, which proposed the rules last June, said that they will "restore important protections for species and their habitats; strengthen the processes for listing species, designating of critical habitat, and consultation with other federal agencies; and ensure a science-based approach that will improve both agencies' ability to fulfill their responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)."
The Center for Biological Diversity—which had blasted the Trump administration for taking a "wrecking ball" to the decades-old law—praised the agencies for removing barriers to designating unoccupied areas as critical habitat as well as for restoring the "blanket rule" for threatened species and the ban on considering economic impacts of listing decisions.
However, the center also pointed out that "of the 31 harmful changes made in 2019 to the act's regulations, only seven are fully addressed and corrected in today's final rules," despite years of work on the new rules and nearly half a million public comments.
"We're mostly still stuck with the disastrous anti-wildlife changes made by the previous administration."
"This was a massive missed opportunity to address the worsening extinction crisis," said Stephanie Kurose, a senior policy specialist at the center. "We needed bold solutions to guide conservation as the climate crisis drives more and more animals and plants to extinction. Instead we're mostly still stuck with the disastrous anti-wildlife changes made by the previous administration."
Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, similarly said that "while the regulations restore some essential wildlife protections, we were hopeful for far more than the marginal win the Biden administration delivered today."
"Our nation's threatened and endangered species are under constant attack and the Endangered Species Act is the only thing standing between them and extinction," she stressed. "We appreciate the administration's work on this matter, but at the end of the day much work remains to be done to ensure the Endangered Species Act can fulfill its critical lifesaving mission."
Experts at the environmental law organization Earthjustice also expressed disappointment that—as Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife, and oceans put it—the Biden administration didn't fully seize "the opportunity to fully reverse the damage inflicted upon the Endangered Species Act and the imperiled species it protects."
Writing about former Republican President Donald Trump's gutting of the ESA—which Biden helped pass shortly after joining the U.S. Senate in 1973—Earthjustice president Abigail Dillen explained at The Progressive on Wednesday:
The dismantling of the ESA could not have come at a worse time. Scientists around the world are telling us that we are on track to lose a million or more species in this century. We have already witnessed a staggering drop of more than two-thirds of all plant and animal life on Earth since 1970. In the United States, nearly half of our ecosystems are now at risk of collapse. It is a staggering pace of loss that climate change is only accelerating.
It would have been far worse without the ESA. The law has saved 99% of listed species from extinction, including the bald eagle, Florida manatee, and the gray wolf, one of my first "clients" when I began my career as an environmental lawyer more than two decades ago.
Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles declared Thursday that "we are in the midst of an extinction crisis; it is time for bold action."
"Imperiled plants and animals do not have the time for half-measures," she noted, "since extinction is forever."
The new rules—expected to provoke lawsuits from farmers, ranchers, and right-wing groups—come as Biden and Trump prepare for a rematch in November.
"One of the lingering legacies of Donald Trump is his attempt to undermine the Endangered Species Act, one of the most successful and popular conservation laws in the history of the United States," Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous said Thursday. "At this moment, we should be listening to scientists and acting urgently to save biodiversity, not letting Donald Trump's gutting of environmental safeguards and sellouts to Big Business stand."
"President Biden has made generational investments in climate action with the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but we need him to do more to protect imperiled wildlife," he added. "The Biden administration needs to protect more habitat, not less. We need the administration to increase protections for biodiversity, not abandon them. The president has the power, and we need him to use it."
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ICJ Issues New Order in Genocide Case as Another Gaza Child Starves to Death
The World Court cited "exceptionally grave" developments, especially the "spread of famine and starvation," in once again ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.
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Citing "the worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in particular the spread of famine and starvation," the International Court of Justice on Thursday ordered Israel to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into the embattled enclave and reiterated an earlier directive to prevent genocidal acts.
The ICJ's new provisional order—which passed by a vote of 15-1, with Israeli Ad-Hoc Judge Aharon Barak dissenting—states that Israel must take "all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza."
This includes "food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene, and sanitation requirements, as well as medical supplies and medical care."
The Hague-based court also ordered Israel to ensure "with immediate effect that its military does not commit acts which constitute a violation of any of the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza as a protected group" under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The court's directive is a response to a March 6 request by South Africa, which filed the genocide case against Israel last December. On January 26, the tribunal issued a provisional ruling that found Israel was plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and ordering the country to prevent genocidal acts.
A final ruling in the case could take years. ICJ rules permit the court to "revoke or modify any decision concerning provisional measures if, in its opinion, some change in the situation justifies such revocation or modification."
Critics accuse Israel of ignoring the January 26 order. South Africa said its March 6 request for modification was prompted by "horrific deaths from starvation of Palestinian children, including babies, brought about by Israel's deliberate acts and omissions" including "concerted attempts" since January 26 to ensure the defunding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) "and Israel's attacks on starving Palestinians seeking to access what extremely limited humanitarian assistance Israel permits into Northern Gaza."
The new ICJ order notes that "Israel rejects 'in the strongest terms' South Africa's claims that incidents of starvation in Gaza are a direct result of its deliberate acts and omissions."
However, the court found that "exceptionally grave" recent developments, including "at least 31 people, including 27 children, having already died of malnutrition and dehydration... constitute a change in the situation."
Underscoring the severity of the crisis, a 5-year-old boy,
identified by Al Jazeera as Mohammed Naeem al-Najar, died of malnutrition Thursday at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.
This, as Israel is blocking UNRWA aid convoys from entering the northern part of the besieged strip.
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday published a draft report that found "reasonable grounds to believe" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a move that came on the same day as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the ongoing war, a move enabled by a U.S. abstention.
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Palestinian and international officials say that since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel, Israeli bombs and bullets have killed at least 32,552 Palestinians—most of them women and children—while wounding nearly 75,000 others. At least 7,000 more Palestinians are missing and feared dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings. Approximately 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced.
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