By David Stanway

KUNMING (Reuters) – More than 100 countries have pledged Wednesday that they will make habitat protection a central part of government decisions. However, many of them did not commit to specific goals to reduce mass extinctions.

Huang Runqiu, the Chinese Environment Minister, told the Kunming delegates that their declaration was not binding but a statement of political will.

The Kunming Declaration calls for “urgent and integrated action” to reflect biodiversity considerations in all sectors of the global economy but crucial issues – like funding conservation in poorer countries and committing to biodiversity-friendly supply chains – have been left to discuss later.

Scientists, experts, and politicians have tried to create a framework for a new agreement on biodiversity conservation, with plant and animal species losing at their fastest pace in over 10 million years.

A previously signed agreement between Japan and Aichi in 2010 set 20 targets for biodiversity conservation. But none of them were achieved.

The United Nations calls for all countries to conserve and protect 30% of their territories by 2030. This is the goal of the ’30 By 30′ initiative.

Li Shuo (senior climate advisor at Greenpeace) stated that the declaration did make reference to the “30 by 30” target but didn’t indicate whether Beijing was on board.

China is land-stressed and could find it difficult to make a 30% pledge. China boasts nearly 10,000 nature reserves, covering almost 18%.

Alice Hughes (a conservation biologist who attended the talk on behalf of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation in Beijing) said that while 24% might seem reasonable for some, 25 percent might not be. However, even getting up to 18% was difficult so it might prove challenging for 30%.

She said that a single-size target is inappropriate for countries like Brazil and Indonesia where 30% would permit more deforestation.

Elizabeth Mrema (executive secretary, U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity) downplayed the significance of adopting the target of 30%.

According to her, “We must remember that we need to focus on biodiversity outcomes and not spatial area.”

Too slow

Some activists also complained about the issue of conservation targets. However, there was no immediate need for urgent action because of disagreements over the declaration’s wording.

In August, a draft of the declaration was released. It contained political slogans that are associated with Chinese President Xi Jinping. These created tensions and underlined China’s inexperience in guiding international agreements to completion.

After receiving feedback from over 40 countries, Xi removed the slogan “lucid water and lush mountains”, but the Chinese concept “ecological civilization” was kept.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that there were concerns, especially from Japan, about China’s push to get the declaration passed without adequate discussion.

Hughes said that Hughes believed there was not enough time for discussion on declarations.

Huang stated to delegates that China has followed the same procedure as it did for previous biodiversity agreements.

Li indicated that China’s experience in negotiating a new pact was not yet certain.

He stated that “global biodiversity is in crisis, but progress towards the Convention on Biological Diversity has been slow”.