• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Global tourism sector may lose $4trn amid COVID-19 pandemic – UN

Stakeholders call for domestication of gas with FG, CBN N250b intervention

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has projected that the global tourism industry may record over $4 trillion losses in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the World Bank has committed over $125 billion to combat the impact of health, economic and social impact of the pandemic.

This leaves the world not only with a message but a resounding alarm to care for nature. This follows the health and economic losses due to other zoonotic diseases such as EBOLA, Bird Flu which emerged from human interference with nature.

The World Bank also reports that West African countries lose 3.8 billion dollars annually to erosion, flooding and pollution, yet the trio is linked to nature and biodiversity loss. The inherent and associated losses that accrue to nature losses are undermining the increasing investment for sustainable development in the run-up to 2030.

In a policy brief developed within the EcoKnowledge Derivative, an initiative of the International Support Network for African Development (ISNAD-Africa), Ibadan, Nigeria with support from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), states that the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) acknowledges the urgency to stop and reverse the nature and biodiversity losses if the aspirations of the United Nations 2030 Agenda must be achieved.

Read also: Dubai at forefront of global tourism recovery 1yr after reopening to international travellers

The policy brief titled, ‘Post 2020 Biodiversity Framework and the Youth,’ stated that despite constituting the highest share of the global population with more than 40 percent of the African population, there has been a minimal contribution and focus on the youth in policy formulation and decision-making process on nature conservation and protection of biodiversity over the years.

It explains that this is partly due to gross inadequacy of quality and meaningful climate and environmental education in primary and secondary students in many countries of the world.

The policy document disclosed that it is against this backdrop that initiatives and efforts have been developed to inspire more young people to take initiative, despite limited resources, and be engaged in biodiversity policies (World Wide Fund, 2020).

The theory of change of the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) recognizes the need for inclusivity, thus, the implementation of the framework will leverage the active participation and contributions of diverse stakeholders at the global, national, and local levels.

“Therefore, the framework implementation will take a rights-based approach, recognizing the principle of intergenerational equity,” the policy document states.

To ensure the empowerment of youth in the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), ISNAD-Africa suggests that the framework should integrate and/or set the pace for effective youth engagements in the implementation of the framework, beyond awareness creation and strategies for resource mobilisation should be conceptualized and operated based on intergenerational equity as well as ensure adequate resources allocated towards capacity building and empowerment of youths.

The ISNAD-Africa also suggests that there should be an improvement in the availability, accessibility, and dissemination of information resources with special attention on the youth at all levels.

It also suggests initiatives on intergenerational knowledge, language learning and transmission, especially by indigenous peoples and local communities are institutionalised and supported through government policy and funding, among other instruments.