In the Race To Save Earth's Biodiversity, Water Is Getting Its Due | Opinion

Nature supports life on Earth and she is hurting, mired in an existential, global crisis where life itself is on the brink. Not since the last dinosaur roamed the planet have the stakes been so enormous. Ecosystems, the very fabric of life, are in jeopardy and in decline, driven by humanity's treatment of our planet. Scientists say we could be on the verge of the sixth mass extinction. More than a million land and marine species could vanish in mere decades.

But there is hope. In what could be a global game-changing moment for nature,196 countries have committed to a landmark framework on biodiversity. We have a new global strategy, and perhaps, a fighting chance.

At the U.N.'s conference on biodiversity known as COP15, the world agreed on four overarching goals and 23 targets to heal and protect our natural world. The centerpiece of the agreement, known as 30 x 30, is a commitment to protect 30 percent of the planet's land and water by 2030. The world has seven short years to make it happen.

Let's set aside cynicism about the timeline for a moment to recognize the significance of this new commitment to marine and freshwater ecosystems. Water protections historically have been given short shrift compared to terrestrial conservation efforts. But oceans, lakes, rivers, and wetlands must receive equal commitment if we want to ensure preservation of nature's full diversity.

Currently only 7.7 percent of coastal waters and oceans are within protected and conserved areas. The new 30 x 30 framework represents a quadrupling of that level. Water is now given equal priority to land, at least on paper. That is the very least that must be done, given the importance of water to the very survival of life on Earth.

Freshwater provides the water on which life depends. Though available freshwater covers less than 1 percent of the planet, it is home to at least 10 percent of all living species. Our lakes and rivers are sources of drinking water and irrigation. Wetlands, salt marshes, seagrass beds, and mangrove swamps filter water and excess nutrients. Oceans generate oxygen, provide food, and support world economies. All of these aquatic environments sequester vast quantities of atmospheric carbon, serving as the most powerful carbon sinks on the planet.

But marine and freshwater habitats are under assault—depleted by overfishing and drought, contaminated by pollutants, and suffocated by toxic algal blooms. Left untreated, we know that toxic algae can strangle sensitive ecosystems, threaten human health, harm local economies and livelihoods, and ultimately create aquatic dead zones where life cannot survive.

Any celebration of COP15's historic global commitment must be tempered by the reality of past failures. Many felt this same hope and promise after the adoption of the 2011 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, yet nations failed to fully meet a single one of those goals 10 years later. Not one. That marks a second consecutive decade of failure to achieve global targets for protecting biodiversity.

The next seven years will test our resolve yet again. What will make this time any different? The urgency of the moment? The stark and irrefutable evidence before us? While the 30 x 30 target represents a historic step forward, its implementation will be complex.

As the important work begins, we must hold governments to account. As U.N. Under-Secretary-General Inger Andersen put it, "Nature and biodiversity is dying the death of a billion cuts. And humanity is paying the price for betraying its closest friend."

Nature supports life on Earth. We have a commitment anew to heal her. Let this be our North Star. The precarious diversity of life and the future of our planet are hanging in the balance.

Eyal Harel is a clean water advocate and CEO of BlueGreen Water Technologies, a global water-tech company whose mission is to restore, safeguard, and optimize the health of water bodies worldwide.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.