Industrialized agriculture produces food, but also problems: extinction of species, overburdened arable land, pollution of groundwater. That is why in 1993 the UN organized the first world conference on the protection of biological diversity.
The UN therefore held the 15th Global Conference on the Protection of Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada, which ended Monday. Participating countries, including Switzerland, agreed on the “30 by 30” target: they commit, among other things, to make 30 percent of their land available for biodiversity and to restore another 30 percent of all degraded landscapes – this could include reforestation of deforested forests, restoration of rivers or restoration of peat areas.
Restriction on tourism and agriculture
Today, Switzerland’s protected area is 13.4 percent of the country’s total area. The fact that this area will be more than doubled worries Markus Ritter (55), secondary national councilor and chairman of the farmers’ association. “Such a promise is completely disproportionate for Switzerland. The Federal Council wants to make 30 percent of the country’s surface binding in the cantons’ structural plans as a biodiversity area. Agriculture, tourism, trade, energy production would be massively limited.”
Green National Councilor Kilian Baumann (42) takes a different view: “This goal makes sense in principle, because areas also need to be returned to nature for the sustainable promotion of biodiversity. In the long term, this increases our security of supply.”
The Federal Office for the Environment is also satisfied. “The robust and ambitious target framework for global biodiversity adopted at the conference has been a great success.”
The agency is now considering a strategy to achieve other goals, including combating pesticides and plant protection products that contain hazardous chemicals. “At the conference it was agreed that the risks of pesticides should be reduced by 50 percent by 2030.”