France will inject €1 billion into funding biodiversity protection and restoration next year as part of a 40-part national biodiversity strategy unveiled Monday.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne introduced the plan, comprised of the measures to “stop the collapse of life” by 2030, which is the final version of an initial draft presented to environmental bodies in July, comprised of four main sections:
- Reduce pressure on biodiversity;
- Restore degraded biodiversity;
- Mobilise all stakeholders;
- Guarantee the resources to meet these targets.
France had voted through the law in July to open up space for biodiversity and carbon credit stacking, as part of its national strategy.
The wider strategy is presented as the French version of the UN Kunming-Montreal agreement, adopted at COP15 last December, which targets the protection and restoration of 30% of nature by 2030.
“[We must] reduce the pressures exerted on biodiversity, by lowering our land use, reducing the use of plants in products, even by fighting against imported deforestation, all under the same principle: creating a radicality in the results without brutality in the measures,” Borne said Monday.
As part of the plans, by 2030, 10% of the national territory will be placed under strong protection, and a wider fight be initiated against the use of artificial products such as pesticides, light and noise pollution, and plastics, particularly in oceans.
France will also accelerate the restoration of ecosystems to “strengthen the resilience of the forest system”, in particular by planting a billion trees and increasing protective measure for threatened species.
As part of the stakeholder mobilisation focus, the state will fund a training and education push.
To pay for the plan, the government will devote an additional €1 bln, up from €250 mln as previously stated, in 2024.
The government also wants to carry out the first exhaustive census of national biodiversity, in France as well as overseas.
However, some are not totally convinced by the plan.
In October, the National Biodiversity Committee, which brings together 150 members, scientists, communities, and NGOs, described it as weak in ambition.
Others such as Veronique Andrieux, general director of WWF-France, had hoped for a revision of the common agricultural policy (CAP), which she says is comprised of a billions of euros in farming subsidies harmful to biodiversity in France.
France and the UK are currently working on creating a global biodiversity market, with announcements expected at COP28 in Dubai, which begins on Nov. 30.
By Roy Manuell – roy@carbon-pulse.com
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