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Wednesday 23 OctOber 2019

Kingdom Report Sounds Alarm on Biodiversity

Conservation in the Dutch Caribbean

Only Four of Twenty Biodiversity Targets On Track to Achieve
Goals in the Dutch Caribbean

KRALENDIJK, BONAIRE — A recently published plan highlights twenty biodiversity benchmarks while no significant change was seen for 50%
report issued by the Kingdom of the Netherlands known as the “Aichi Biodiversity Targets”. Every of the targets for some of the Dutch Caribbean
has sounded the alarm that only four of twenty five years, each participating country including islands. The five targets with a worsening trend
‘Aichi Targets’ of the ‘Convention on Biological the Kingdom of the Netherlands is expected to on some or all of the Dutch Caribbean islands
Diversity (CBD)’ have been achieved in the submit a National Report on the current status includes (5) loss of natural habitats, (7) sustain-
Dutch Caribbean, highlighting increased need for these benchmarks, the latest report gives an able agriculture, (12) reducing risk of extinction,
for conservation management actions in the update through 2018. Since 2010, the Kingdom (14) ecosystem services, (15) ecosystem resto-
Caribbean part of the Kingdom. The CBD is an of the Netherlands consists of the Netherlands, ration and resilience. Successes The report did
international agreement under the United Na- with the public entities Bonaire, Saba and Sint highlight some successes for the Dutch Carib-
tions Environment Program that aims to provide Eustatius; and three autonomous countries, bean and four targets are currently on track to
an international legal framework to support the Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Collectively reach the 2020 targets for some of the islands.
conservation and sustainable use of natural re- Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao Saba, Sint Eustatius These Aichi targets are (1) awareness of bio-
sources, ensuring the preservation of biological and Sint Maarten are called the Caribbean diversity, (2) biodiversity values integrated into
diversity of contracting parties. part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands or the national and local development and poverty
Dutch Caribbean. reduction strategies and planning, (8) pollu-
In order to achieve this, the contracting parties tion reduction and (17) establishing biodiversity
to the CBD have established a set of goals and Alarming Trends strategies and action plans. The report reflects
targets to promote conservation and sustain- This most recent report from the Kingdom of the positively on the public awareness campaigns
able use of natural resources worldwide known Netherlands, released in April this year, states across all of the Dutch Caribbean that stresses
as the Aichi Targets. The Kingdom of the Neth- that although there has been some significant the importance of protecting nature, reducing
erlands highlights that of the twenty targets progress toward meeting the national targets, pollution and encouraging sustainable use of
which were set for 2020 only four are on track the 2020 deadline will not be fully met. For the resources. The other three targets are only on
of being achieved on time. These results stress Dutch Caribbean, the largest threats to reach- track to achieve the targets on the so-called
the immediate need for action by conserva- ing the Aichi Targets are amongst others over- BES-islands of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.
tion groups and government agencies alike. grazing by free roaming feral livestock, invasive In many cases, long-term monitoring data is
The Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) species, overfishing, and pollution. These threats lacking for many of the twenty Aichi Targets on
stresses that although current support from the make island habitats less resilient to the major each of the six Dutch Caribbean islands, there-
Netherlands is mainly aimed at the islands of threat of climate change. The report also states fore, the analysis completed was based on ex-
Saba, St. Eustatius and Bonaire which are now that not enough is being done to deal with these perts’ judgments and the actual success varied
constitutionally part of the Netherlands, nature local threats. In total sixteen of the twenty Aichi significantly across the six Dutch Caribbean is-
knows no borders and it is therefore of the ut- targets are not on track for one or more of the lands. Since 2010, the BES islands saw an overall
most importance that the Kingdom of the Neth- Dutch Caribbean islands in achieving the 2020 increase in funding support and conservation
erlands supports the nature conservation plans targets. Additionally, a total of 13 targets are on actions, and therefore probably saw greater
and projects of all six Dutch Caribbean Islands. progress but at an insufficient rate for some of improvements when compared against Aruba,
The current Strategic Plan for Diversity was the islands. Furthermore, it was found that, for Curaçao and Sint Maarten, though clearly not
signed by all contracting parties of the CBD the Dutch Caribbean islands, an alarming five enough.
convention in 2010 and runs through 2020. The of the Aichi Targets had a worsening trend, Continued on Page 14