Mother Earth-Centric Actions within the International Biodiversity Protection Regime

Abstract

The loss of biodiversity is one of the three components of our age’s triple planetary crisis, besides climate change and pollution. The valorisation of nature can open new pathways to address pressing challenges and may be considered a foundation of ecocentric approaches. The paper examines the international biodiversity regime, in which recognition of nature’s intrinsic value is limited initially to a few preambular acknowledgements. However, the 2022 adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework may change the tendency to disregard nature’s own worth, as it introduces the concept of Mother Earth-centred actions within its resource mobilisation and financial goals. The paper analyses the occurrence of this concept and its impact on policy areas due to COP16 in 2024. Finally, it proposes the areas in which this concept can further strengthen the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.