South Africa to demand money, not more paperwork, at nature summit
Nearly half the country's ecosystem types are threatened. Its delegation heads to Armenia arguing that poor countries should not borrow to protect wildlife.
Johannesburg — South Africa will press rich countries for more accessible funding, technology and practical help to protect nature when the world's biodiversity summit opens in Armenia next week, the Mail & Guardian reports.
The meeting, the 17th conference of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, runs in Yerevan from 19 to 30 October. It will carry out the first global review of progress on the framework agreed in 2022, which set 23 targets for 2030 to halt and reverse the loss of species and habitats.
The argument
The delegation will be led by the deputy environment minister, Narend Singh. His position is that the meeting cannot simply measure how far countries have fallen behind. It has to give them the means to act.
He wants finance that is adequate, predictable and easy to reach, and he wants more of it as public grants. Developing countries, he argues, should not be driven further into debt to protect biodiversity.
The global framework calls for at least $200 billion a year from all sources by 2030, including $30 billion a year in international finance for developing countries.
Mr Singh says the obstacles are practical: complicated applications, too little capacity to prepare projects, and too few scientists and technicians. And he is blunt about the alternative on offer. The answer to gaps in implementation, he says, cannot be more reporting requirements.
What is at stake at home
South Africa is one of 17 countries that together hold more than two-thirds of the world's biodiversity. More than 60% of its indigenous plants grow nowhere else.
The national assessment published in 2025 found that:
- nearly half of the 986 ecosystem types assessed are threatened;
- 16% of assessed plant species and 10% of assessed animal species are threatened;
- freshwater fish are at particular risk.
The country spent an average of about R15.22 billion a year on biodiversity between 2016 and 2024.
Genes and who profits
South Africa will also push for the fair sharing of benefits when companies use genetic resources, including genetic information held in digital form, with the communities and healers who have looked after the knowledge.
A fund set up under the convention, known as the Cali Fund, is meant to channel money from companies that use such data. How much it will raise, how it will be shared and who should run it are all unsettled.
Mr Singh will meet other African ministers before the summit to agree a common position.
This report is based on reporting by the Mail & Guardian.
