Conservationists unite in unique declaration to step up the fight to protect wildlife

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Uniting to ensure that the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, as agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity, includes targets and indicators in support of the recommendations outlined in this document, in particular those that ensure any trade and use of wildlife is legal, sustainable, safe, and does not include trade in threatened species nor pose a zoonotic risk to humans or to the survival of threatened species in the wild, while also incorporating considerations safeguarding human and animal health and wellbeing. For species where commercial trade is allowed, enact the implementing and updating of international and national legislation and regulations to ensure it is sustainable, traceable and safe – or, as appropriate and following consultation, closed down on the occasion where it poses a likely, evidence-based risk of zoonotic transmission to people or other animals or threatens the survival of the species in the wild; while ensuring that science-based solutions based on biological, public and animal health criteria, and criteria to protect biodiversity and human and animal health, are adopted to regulate trade in species. R4: Supporting Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities G20 States need to respect the rights, and enhance the livelihoods and well-being of IPLCs living within and/or depending on natural ecosystems so as to improve human wellbeing, alleviate human-wildlife coexistence pressures, and reduce and halt the loss of natural habitat and the associated wildlife they hold. Now is the time to value and invest in nature to prevent future pandemics by developing sustainable nature-based economic stimulus packages that embrace a One Health approach and address long-term planetary health, food security, poverty alleviation, climate change and biodiversity loss, and work towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.