Location
SE Room 2, Expo City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Organizers
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
United Arab Emirates
Angola
About
Climate change and its widespread adverse consequences constitute the greatest threat humanity has faced in modern history. All solutions aimed at tackling this crisis and mitigating its effects must be considered, including, and some might argue especially, by prioritizing biodiversity protection.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are interlinked and interdependent crises: when biodiversity erodes, climate change intensifies, leading, in a dangerous vicious circle, to an exacerbation of biodiversity loss and so on. In this respect, protecting biodiversity can be considered as the cornerstone of our fight to mitigate climate change. Healthy ecosystems, in fact, are not only more resilient to climate change, they also act as “carbon sinks”, enhancing nature’s carbon capture and storage capacity, thus diminishing the overall negative effects of climate change. Despite this, biodiversity is disappearing at an unprecedented rate, with roughly one million animal and plant species currently threatened with extinction, many within decades, if we do not change course. Wildlife overexploitation, including through illegal activities (wildlife crime), is exacerbating this crisis, leading to the depletion of keystone species and the disruption of ecosystem services, including their ability to store and sequester carbon. If we are to effectively counter climate change, mitigate and adapt to its impacts, we need to urgently scale up our ambitions and efforts to protect biodiversity.
Objective
This side event will explore the links between climate change and biodiversity loss, highlighting the need to protect wild species and the ecosystems they inhabit as a means for addressing climate change, by delivering co-benefits on both mitigation and adaptation.
Panellists will engage in a moderated dialogue on the importance of this issue, highlighting key initiatives that are actively protecting terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and creating climate-resilient land- and sea-scapes, with a regional focus on the Middle East and Southern Africa.
Panellists will also show how wildlife crime is impacting critical ecosystems, increasing their vulnerability to climate change, and will show how efforts to tackle wildlife crime play an important role in protecting biodiversity and thereby addressing climate change.
Speakers
Vivek Menon, CEO, Wildlife Trust of India, Senior Advisor to the President of IFAW, and IUCN Regional Councilor for South and East Asia
HE Razan Al Mubarak, President IUCN, Managing Director of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, and the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund
HE Dr. Mohammed Salman Alhammadi, Assistant Undersecretary of Biodiversity & Marine Life Sector, Ministry for Climate Change and Environment, UAE
Azzedine Downes, President and CEO, IFAW
Paula Francisco Coelho, Secretary of State for Climate and Sustainable Development, Angola
John Scanlon, Chair, Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime
Paula Francisco Coelho, Secretary of State for Climate and Sustainable Development, Angola
Azzedine Downes, CEO, IFAW