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TWN
Info Service on Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge (May24/04) New report: Exporting Extinction As the world is awash in major, compounding crises, figuring out how to tackle them without generating new problems can be a challenge. Currently, our political and economic systems, built primarily around extraction, are driving compounding crises of inequity, climate change, and biodiversity loss. These crises are escalating, but little has been done to prevent them. Why is this? A new report, Exporting Extinction, published by the Centre for Climate Justice, the Climate and Community Project, and Third World Network, tackles this question, focussing on biodiversity loss. The research finds that governments are “exporting extinction” under pressure from an unequal international financial system. Through the study of five countries (Argentina, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea), the report set out to investigate why so many governments struggle to meet agreed-upon targets to maintain and restore biodiversity. Our research report finds that while many governments continue to support extractive sector expansion that drives biodiversity loss, their policy autonomy to choose differently is highly constrained by their position within the international financial and monetary system, under conditions of financial and political subordination. These constraints must be overcome for the world’s governments to meet environmental commitments. With upcoming major UN conferences on biodiversity and climate hosted by Colombia and Brazil, respectively, bold action for climate and ecosystems, as well as international solidarity and redistributive agendas, must be on the table. These are major opportunities to redirect international policy and agreements toward solving compounding ecological crises, but we know there is more work to do to ensure the right solutions are adopted, and a necessary break with the status quo of extractivism is achieved. The report launch webinar on 7 May 2024 featured commentary from Thea Riofrancos, Chee Yoke Ling, Ana Di Pangracio, Fahdel Kaboub, and lead researcher Jess Dempsey. You can view a recording here. (French and Spanish translations of the report will be available in the coming weeks). With
best wishes,
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