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Home , Biodiversity loss

European Parliament 2019-2024

Committee on Development

2020/2274(INI)

22.2.2021

DRAFT REPORT

on the role of development policy in the response to loss in developing countries, in the context of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda (2020/2274(INI))

Committee on Development

Rapporteur: Michèle Rivasi

PR\1225064EN.docx PE689.496v01-00

EN United in diversityEN PR_INI

CONTENTS

Page

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION...... 3

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT ...... 9

PE689.496v01-00 2/9 PR\1225064EN.docx EN MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION on the role of development policy in the response to biodiversity loss in developing countries, in the context of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda (2020/2274(INI))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the International Union for Conservation of ,

– having regard to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1992,

– having regard to Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization on indigenous and tribal peoples of 1989,

– having regard to the International Treaty on Genetic Resources for Food and ,

– having regard to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007,

– having regard to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas of 2018,

– having regard to the special report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on (IPCC) on climate change and land of 2019,

– having regard to the IPCC special report on the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate of 2019,

– having regard to the global assessment report of the Intergovernmental -Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Services (IPBES) on biodiversity and ecosystem services of 2019,

– having regard to the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, submitted to the UN General Assembly in 2016,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 25 May 2020 entitled ‘EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 – Bringing nature back into our lives’ (COM(2020)0380),

– having regard to Commission recommendation 2013/396/EU of 11 June 2013 on common principles for injunctive and compensatory collective redress mechanisms in the Member States concerning violations of rights granted under Union Law1,

– having regard to the Council conclusions of 15 May 2017 on indigenous peoples,

– having regard to the new European Consensus on Development of 2017,

1 OJ L 201, 26.7.2013, p. 60.

PR\1225064EN.docx 3/9 PE689.496v01-00 EN – having regard to its resolution of 3 July 2018 on violation of the rights of indigenous peoples in the world, including land grabbing2,

– having regard to Front Line Defenders’ global analysis 2020,

– having regard to the study entitled ‘Indigenous peoples, extractive industries and rights’, published by its Directorate-General for External Policies in September 2014,

– having regard to the in-depth analysis entitled ‘Challenges for environmental and indigenous peoples’ rights in the Amazon region’, published by its Directorate-General for External Policies in June 2020,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 23 July 2019 on stepping up EU action to protect and restore the world’s forests (COM(2019)0352) and to the subsequent Council conclusions,

– having regard to its resolution of 22 October 2020 with recommendations to the Commission on an EU legal framework to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation3,

– having regard to the EU Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Action Plan adopted in November 2003,

– having regard to the European Green Deal,

– having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Development (A9-0000/2021),

A. whereas around 70 % of the world’s poor directly depend on biological diversity for their livelihoods;

B. whereas according to the IPBES 2019 global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, most of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020 will be missed;

C. whereas the IPBES reports that change, and urbanisation are responsible for more than 30 % of emerging disease events;

D. whereas indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) are heavily reliant on land, natural resources and for their basic needs and livelihoods;

E. whereas protected areas have the potential to safeguard biodiversity for the benefit of all humanity, but have also been associated, in some cases, with large-scale human rights violations against IPLC;

F. whereas a growing body of research is showing that IPLC possess crucial knowledge and play a vital role in the sustainable management of natural resources and the conservation of biodiversity;

2 OJ C 118, 8.4.2020, p. 15. 3 Texts adopted, P9_TA(2020)0285.

PE689.496v01-00 4/9 PR\1225064EN.docx EN G. whereas the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 75 % of in has been lost worldwide, which poses a serious risk to global ;

H. whereas it is estimated that globally, 30 % of threats to are due to international trade;

I. whereas in addition to international trade, illegal trade in timber and raw materials can accelerate the degradation and destruction of biodiversity in countries with weak institutions;

1. Is alarmed at the fact that the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services will undermine progress in approximately 80 % of the assessed targets for the UN Goals (SDGs);

2. Calls for the EU to address the root causes of biodiversity loss and to mainstream obligations on conservation and the sustainable use of resources into broader development policies;

3. Recalls that the conservation, sustainable use and restoration of biodiversity is vital to achieve many other policy objectives, including human health, climate change mitigation and adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and water and food security;

4. Emphasises the duty of states to protect natural and biodiversity-rich ecosystems and the human and land rights of IPLC and Afro-descendants who depend on these ecosystems for their survival;

5. Calls for the EU and its Member States to support the global recognition of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment at the UN General Assembly and to examine the case for giving legal personality to nature;

6. Calls for the EU and its Member States to step up their efforts to better assess and value biodiversity and ecosystem services and to integrate these values into decision-making;

7. Underlines the fact that planning, scrutinising and monitoring the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) are key to the pursuit of the EU’s goals;

8. Regrets the fact that the EU budget for supporting external biodiversity policy remains considerably low in comparison with that earmarked for climate change policies;

9. Calls for the EU to pass a mandatory due diligence law to make companies and their financiers directly responsible for ensuring that their imports are not tainted by land grabs and ;

Policy coherence for development

10. Recalls that the effectiveness of EU external biodiversity policy depends on policy coherence between biodiversity and other key EU external policies;

PR\1225064EN.docx 5/9 PE689.496v01-00 EN 11. Urges the EU to mainstream biodiversity into all policy areas, notably agriculture, fisheries, energy, mining, trade and climate change;

12. Notes with deep concern that EU consumption accounts for around 10 % of the global share of deforestation; reiterates its call for the Commission to submit a proposal in 2021 for an EU legal framework to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation, by ensuring that EU market and consumption patterns do not detrimentally affect forests and biodiversity;

13. Recalls that the EU’s growing demand for wood for use in materials, energy and the bioeconomy is exceeding the limits of its supply, which increases the risk of import- embodied deforestation, land grabbing, forced displacement and violations of indigenous peoples’ rights;

14. Calls for the protection and restoration of forests to be prioritised in the upcoming NDICI;

Agriculture

15. Recalls that agricultural production both depends and has an impact on biodiversity;

16. Insists that EU external funding for agriculture should be in line with the transformative nature of the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN CBD; considers that investment in agro-, agroforestry and crop diversification should be prioritised accordingly;

17. Calls on the Commission to no longer authorise GMO crops for import or cultivation in the EU owing to the damage they cause to biodiversity and the health risks they pose;

18. Recalls that seed diversity is vital in building the resilience of farming to climate change;

19. Calls for the EU to support intellectual property rights regimes that enhance the development of locally adapted seed varieties and farmer‑saved seeds;

20. Calls for the EU to put an end to the double standards towards whereby hazardous substances banned in the EU can be exported from the Union;

21. Calls for the EU to advocate at COP 15 of the UN CBD a global moratorium on gene drive research linked to the development of applications and on releases of gene drive organisms into nature, including field trials;

Trade

22. Highlights the EU’s responsibility to reduce the indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, by systematically including biodiversity in trade negotiations and dialogues with developing countries;

23. Stresses that in order to be enforceable, the environmental objectives of the EU’s free trade agreements (FTAs) must be clear, quantifiable, verifiable and include sanctions for non-compliance;

PE689.496v01-00 6/9 PR\1225064EN.docx EN 24. Highlights that the biodiversity of cultivated crops and farmed animals has fallen as a result of international trade; calls for a full assessment of the direct and indirect impact of EU FTAs on biodiversity;

Public health

25. Stresses that the deterioration of biodiversity and ecosystems have both direct and indirect impacts on public health;

26. Recalls that ecological restoration is critical for the implementation of the ‘One Health’ approach;

27. Recalls that the majority of drugs used for healthcare and the prevention of diseases are derived from biodiversity;

28. Stresses the challenges raised in developing countries by intellectual property rights over genetic resources and traditional knowledge in terms of access to medicine, the production of generic drugs and farmers’ access to seeds;

29. Stresses the need to ensure that the benefits of nature’s genetic resources are shared fairly and equitably; insists that the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) should be compatible with the Nagoya Protocol to the UN CBD;

Indigenous peoples and local communities

30. Underlines the fact that the IPBES global assessment demonstrated the importance of IPLC to global biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management;

31. Highlights the numerous allegations of large-scale violations of the rights of indigenous peoples reported by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples;

32. Calls for the EU to enhance the scrutiny of EU-funded projects in terms of human rights abuses and, where necessary, to terminate projects which violate human rights and evict IPLC from their homeland;

33. Urges the EU to ensure that a rights-based approach is applied to all projects funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA), with particular regard to the rights of pastoralists and IPLC, including full recognition of the right to self-determination and land rights as enshrined in human rights treaties;

34. Urges the EU to ensure that the NaturAfrica Initiative promotes a rights-based approach to conservation and is developed in consultation with the IPLC concerned, together with the civil society groups who support them;

35. Stresses that securing tenure rights is a prerequisite for effective biodiversity mainstreaming; notes, however, that the lack of collective land rights for indigenous peoples is a primary obstacle to ensuring that rights-based conservation becomes effective;

Environmental criminality

PR\1225064EN.docx 7/9 PE689.496v01-00 EN 36. Underlines the fact that poses a global threat to sustainable development, stability and security;

37. Stresses that trafficking should be classified as a serious crime in accordance with the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime in an effort to facilitate international cooperation;

38. Urges the EU to make the fight against environmental crime an overriding strategic political priority in international judicial cooperation and at COP meetings;

39. Stresses that there is no permanent international mechanism to monitor and address environmental damage and destruction that alters the global commons or ecosystem services; calls for the EU and the Member States, to this end, to support a paradigm shift to include and the right of future generations in international ;

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40. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

PE689.496v01-00 8/9 PR\1225064EN.docx EN EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

PR\1225064EN.docx 9/9 PE689.496v01-00 EN