SYDNEY – Just prior to the COP16 biodiversity summit in Colombia, the Australian Government hosted the world’s first Global ‘Nature Positive’ Summit. ‘Nature positive’ means “an improvement in the diversity, abundance, resilience, and integrity of ecosystems from a baseline” according to Australia’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) and is a key part of the stage two reforms to the nation’s environmental laws which could go into effect as early as July 2025. Mongabay attended the summit to ask delegates for their thoughts on an array of topics including concerns of human rights abuses linked to the ’30×30′ goals under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and what it means to address the needs of local and Indigenous people while making good on the promises to protect nature. This podcast episode features two delegates and a scientist discussing what they want to see from political leaders. Barry Hunter, a descendent of the Djabugay people and the CEO of The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), discusses what action means for environmental protection, the integrity of offsets and credits, and how ensuring the aspirations of First Nations is crucial to that integrity. “I think there’s some amazing thought processes [but] we need to show that action on the ground and we need to get moving with it,” says Hunter. Mongabay also speaks with Eliane Ubalijoro, the CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF, about how her organization is now monitoring the social impacts of their work there, and with behavioral biologist, Ben…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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