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CEPF is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, Fondation Hans Wilsdorf, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan and the World Bank.
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Contributing to Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Targets
When I return, as I often do, to the rural village and area of my childhood and youth, the poverty of the people and the devastation of the natural environment painfully strike me. And in that impoverishment of the natural environment, it is the absence of access to clean water that strikes most starkly.
– Nelson Mandela
The theme of this year’s International Day for Biological Diversity, which took place on May 22, is “Biodiversity for sustainable development.” This theme reflects the importance of biodiversity ― the variety of life on Earth ― for sustainable development and human well-being.
People, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership — these are the areas of critical importance identified by the United Nations via the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the SDGs or “global goals.” The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) focuses on biodiversity conservation and partnership, believing these to be fundamental to all of these elements of a sustainable future.
More than 1 billion people make a living from wetlands. Protecting wetlands is critical to ensuring that these people continue to benefit from these ecosystems for their livelihoods — whether it be for fishing, rice farming, tourism or transport.
Wetlands also sustain biodiversity by offering habitat for numerous freshwater and saltwater species, provide people with food and fresh water, protect shores against flooding, and store carbon, which helps regulate climate change.
Researchers have identified a new biodiversity hotspot, one of only 36 in the world. The North American Coastal Plain biodiversity hotspot, which stretches from northern Mexico to southern Maine, runs along the coast and includes areas within major U.S. cities, most notably New York City and Washington, D.C.
The hotspot is home to 1,816 species of plants, 51 species of birds and 114 species of mammals that are found nowhere else in the world.
Within the interior rainforest on the small Caribbean island of St. Vincent, the Kamacrabou watershed provides essential water and soil maintenance for Diamond Village, a small farming community with a population of approximately 500. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States reports that “deforestation is one of the major impacts to the current use of the watershed and has resulted in landslides, soil erosion, flash floods, and sedimentation of streams, loss in biodiversity, disruption of microclimate and contamination of water quality.”