双语 | 拯救自然才能拯救人类自己

我们唯一赖以生存的家园——地球的生态系统正濒临崩溃。

Our planet – the only home we have – is at breaking point.

地球上三分之二的海洋和四分之三的陆地已遭到人为破坏。据估计，到2050年，大约100万个物种可能灭绝，全球物种灭绝的速度可能比过去一千万年还要快上百倍。

Two thirds of our earth’s oceans and three quarters of its land have been damaged by humans. One million species could vanish by 2050 – accelerating the global extinction rate potentially hundreds of times faster than over the last 10 million years.

图:Fabrice Dudenbofer/Coral Reef Image Bank.

据瑞士再保险公司估计[1]，世界上五分之一的国家可能由于野生动物及其栖息地遭破坏，而面临生态系统完全崩溃的情况——而这些野生动物的栖息地对于人类而言同样难舍难分。

One fifth of all nations could see their ecosystems collapse completely, according to insurer Swiss Re, due to destruction of wildlife and their habitats – on which we ourselves depend.

只有保护生物多样性，我们的地球才能更可持续：生物多样性将我们这个世界的每条独立但又彼此关联的生物链相连接，每一种生命形式，无论多么微小，于整体都必不可少。

Our earth can only continue to sustain us if we protect its biodiversity: the individual, yet interconnected chain of plant and animal species that hold our world together. Every life form, however tiny, is essential to the whole.

的确，生态系统为我们贡献的“服务”，比如作物授粉或水质保持，不但关乎人类的存亡，也为全球经济提供了动力。据世界经济论坛统计[2]，生态系统为全球贡献了超过一半的生产总值（高达44万亿美元）。

Indeed, ecosystem ‘services’ – such as pollination of crops (or preserving water quality) – are not only vital to our survival, but also powering the global economy, contributing to more than half of global GDP (up to $44 trillion), according to the World Economic Forum.

对生物多样性的持续破坏也加剧了气候变化，使我们在气候变化面前更为脆弱。比如森林生态系统，在为其他物种提供栖息地的同时也能吸收温室气体。气候变化也会进一步破坏生物多样性。这也意味着我们无法抛开气候变化来谈论生物多样性，反之亦然。

The ongoing destruction of the planet’s biodiversity also quickens climate change and makes us even more vulnerable to it. This is because the ecosystems – such as forests – providing habitats to other species also absorb our greenhouse gases. Climate change in turn, also harms biodiversity, making these two challenges two sides of the same coin.

更严峻的情况是，对生态系统的破坏也威胁着人类健康，因为我们赖以生存的食物、药物、水甚至氧气的资源都受到了影响。对野外栖息地的侵占、对野生动物的剥削，我们也可能面临着新的人畜共患传染病的风险，正如2019冠状病毒病那样。

To make matters worse, damage to our ecosystems also threatens human health, by diminishing our sources of food, medicine, water and even oxygen. By encroaching into wild habitats and exploiting the creatures within them, we also risk new diseases jumping from animals to humans, as COVID-19 did.

因此，且不谈繁荣，人类若想存活，就必须保持世界生物的多样性。

Humankind can therefore only survive, let alone prosper, if our world remains biodiverse.

图片源于视觉中国

10月11日起，世界各国的领导人齐聚，线上线下参加在昆明举办的联合国《生物多样性公约》缔约方大会第十五次会议（后称“COP15”）。这是进一步坚定国际社会对保护自然环境的决心和承诺的重要时刻。会议的当务之急是制定一项全球救援计划：一个宏伟的生物多样性保护路线图，以及得到所有国家支持和资助的下一个十年的新目标。这些目标不仅要达到改善自然环境的目的，还要能促进社会和经济的转型，只有这样，COP15的举办才能达成突破性的意义，为人类在地球上可持续地生存提供保障。

From October 11th, world leaders will gather online for part one of the UN Convention on Biodiversity, COP-15, in Kunming. This is a critical moment to raise the level of ambition and commitments for nature. What is needed is a global rescue plan: a bold roadmap for protecting biodiversity, with new goals for the next decade that all countries support and finance. Those goals must transform not only our environment, but also our societies and economies, for COP-15 to be the breakthrough our earth needs to sustain us.

图片源于视觉中国

作为《生物多样性公约》的一部分，联合国敦促世界各国做出承诺：到2030年，使全球至少30%的陆地和海洋区域得到保护。

As part of this compact, the UN has urged countries to commit to protecting at least 30 percent of their land and sea territories by 2030.

作为此次大会的东道国，中国将首次领导世界达成一项重大的国际环保协议，并且，中国将有机会捍卫上述目标并设立更高的标准。

As the host nation – and leading the world for the first time into a major international agreement for the environment – China has an invaluable opportunity to champion these goals and set the bar high.

作为致力于全球保护生物多样性的最大多边伙伴之一，联合国开发计划署（UNDP）将为中国的行动提供充分的支持。从生态系统修复、野生动物保护到生物多样性主流化，联合国开发计划署一直在寻找使人与自然和谐共存的可持续发展方式。在全球环境基金（GEF）、绿色气候基金（GCF）和其他机构的支持下，截止2021年，联合国开发计划署的全球自然项目团队执行了32亿美元的赠款，并撬动了125亿美元的配套资金，累计为138个国家提供了生态系统管理及生物多样性保护方面的支持。

UNDP is well-positioned to support such efforts. As one of the biggest multilateral partners working to protect biodiversity globally, we are committed to finding sustainable ways for humanity to co-exist with nature. Working with key partners including the Adaptation Fund, the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund we currently support a US$3.2 billion portfolio in 138 countries that is invested in ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation.

在过去的二十多年来，我们在中国先后与包括生态环境部在内的十余个部委和很多省份，就生物多样性保护开展了合作。在多方的共同努力下，我们取得了瞩目的成果：通过新型测绘基础和政策落实，中国的陆上保护地面积扩大到了240万平方公里，约占其国土面积的四分之一。

In China, we have cooperated with more than 10 ministries – including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, along with most provinces – on safeguarding biodiversity over the past two decades. Together, we have achieved important results: through new mapping and enforcement measures, China’s fully protected terrestrial areas have expanded to 2.4 million square kilometers, about a quarter of its land mass.

通过多个项目，我们努力将生物多样性保护纳入了政府的政策、规章、项目和计划。例如，2016年，联合国开发计划署和全球环境基金的项目协助并促成了《湿地保护修复制度方案》的制定，并促成31个省份制定了相应的湿地保护修复制度实施方案。

Through various projects, we have worked to incorporate biodiversity protection within government policies, regulations, programmes and planning. UNDP and Global Environment Facility projects, for example, helped to form the National Wetland Conservation and Recovery Schemes in 2016, and supported 31 provinces in preparing corresponding implementation plans.

在2013至2019年间，在联合国开发计划署与全球环境基金的支持下，保护地面积增加，其中新增了190万公顷湿地保护地，加强了对这个世界最重要的生态系统之一的保护。截至2019年底，中国5360万公顷的湿地中有52%受到了保护。

Between 2013-2019, UNDP and GEF helped to expand biodiversity conservation by widening coverage of Protected Areas (PAs), including 1.9 million new hectares of protected wetlands – one of the world’s most critical ecosystems. By the end of 2019, China’s wetlands spanned 53.6 million hectares, with 52 percent protected.

通过分享国际先进经验，联合国开发计划署还通过使用管理有效性跟踪工具(METT)、支持管理计划的制定等手段来提高项目管理的有效性。此外，联合国开发计划署与贵州省环境保护厅合作成立了专项办公室，负责生态系统服务相关的规划及支付管理。该理念旨在对自然进行明码标价，并对规范的生态系统服务(如索取森林木材或在河流捕鱼)进行收费，以此为有效保护生态系统及其生物多样性提供资金。

By sharing international best practices, UNDP has also helped to strengthen the quality of PA management, such as by using Management Effectiveness Tracing Tools (METT) and supporting the formulation of management plans. In addition, UNDP cooperated with Guizhou’s Environmental Protection Department to set up a dedicated office for planning and managing payments for ecosystem services. The idea is to attach a price tag to nature and charge for the regulated use of ecosystem services, such as wood from forests, or fishing in the rivers, to fund the effective protection of these ecosystems and their biodiversity.

今年，联合国开发计划署的全球生物多样性金融倡议(BIOFIN)在中国落地，这是我们为生态保护筹集更多资源并提升保护有效性的国际举措之一。BIOFIN正与40多个国家进行合作，旨在揭示生物多样性金融如何为人类和地球服务。在中国，该倡议将山东的生物多样性保护与上海的金融创新结合在一起，进一步加大了中国已在绿色金融方面做出的重大贡献。

This year, UNDP’s global Biodiversity Finance Initiative, BIOFIN, expanded to China, as part of our international efforts to multiply resources for conservation and improve their effectiveness. Working with over 40 countries, BIOFIN aims to show how biodiversity finance can work both for people and planet. Its launch in China combines biodiversity protection efforts in Shandong Province with the financial innovations of Shanghai, furthering China’s already significant contributions to green finance.

然而，我们的工作还远未完成。为在现有基础上进一步加强中国和世界对生物多样性的保护，我们必须加强不同部门和地区之间在生物多样性方面的合作。因为生物多样性没有明确的主题或地理边界，所以解决生物多样性方面的挑战需要跨部门、跨领域的协调、合作和共识。

However, our work is far from done. To build on this progress and enable even stronger biodiversity protection in China and beyond, we must enhance biodiversity cooperation between different sectors and regions, because biodiversity does not have obvious thematic or geographic boundaries. As such, solving biodiversity challenges requires coordination, alignment and consensus across sectors and areas.

为实现该目标以及更有效的自然资源管理，我们需要综合空间规划措施来协调对水土和海洋的保护。过去提倡的环保理念包括对河流流域、生态系统和水资源的综合管理。对这些策略进行巩固是至关重要的，这样它们才能相辅相成。

To enable this and more effective natural resources management, we need integrated spatial planning approaches, coordinating land, water and sea conservation. In the past, many conservation concepts have been encouraged, including integrating management of river basins, ecosystems and water resources. Consolidating these strategies will be essential, so that they support each other.

由于生态系统还可以发挥碳汇的作用，在制定政策时需要同步解决生物多样性和气候变化问题。举例来说，中国科学院(CAS)曾发现，在2001年到2010年间，陆地生态系统每年的固碳量相当于中和了中国14.1%的化石燃料排放。鉴于中国已做出在2060年实现碳中和的承诺，这一点的意义实为重大。

Policies must also increasingly tackle biodiversity and climate change together, given that ecosystems can serve as carbon sinks. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) found that, for example, from 2001-2010, the annual carbon sequestration of terrestrial ecosystems was equal to offsetting 14.1% of China’s fossil fuel emissions. This is highly significant, given China’s 2060 carbon neutrality pledge.

为确保上述目标的实现，生物多样性金融至关重要。而且必须扩大融资，从而实现在2050年前填补全球生物多样性4.1万亿美元的融资缺口的目标。可持续的生物多样性金融工具包括生态系统服务支付(PES)和绿色金融，如债权-自然置换（Debt-for Nature swaps）以及联合国开发计划署提供的自然绩效债券（NPB），它能够让主权国通过获得认证的环境活动绩效获得债务减免。而中国作为全球核心的主权债权国，可在未来的NPB中发挥重要作用。

To ensure all this, biodiversity financing is vital. It must be expanded, to close the global USD 4.1 trillion biodiversity financing gap by 2050. Sustainable biodiversity financing tools include Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Green Finance, such as Debt-for Nature swaps and UNDP’s Nature Performance Bond (NPB) – offering relief on sovereign debt in exchange for certified performance in environmental activities. Given China’s central role as a global sovereign creditor, it could play a major role in NPBs going forward.

最后，我们必须利用技术实现生物多样性保护的变革。人工智能和大数据等新技术具有巨大潜力，例如可以通过实时跟踪和监测助力保护措施落地，也可以升级灾害预警系统。

Finally, we must leverage technology to transform biodiversity protection. Innovations such as AI and big data hold great potential, such as in helping to enforce conservation measures, through real-time tracking and monitoring, as well as boosting disaster warning systems.

联合国开发计划署已做好准备与中国共同努力，推动COP15的成功举办，并推动一个雄心勃勃、具体、可测量的“2020年后全球生物多样性框架”的制定。我们还将继续支持包括中国在内的全球各国进行必要的重大转型，以拯救这个支撑我们未来发展的生态系统。

UNDP stands ready to work with China to make COP-15 a success in delivering an ambitious, specific, and measurable post-2020 global biodiversity framework. We will also continue to support countries, including China, in making the major transformations needed to save the ecosystems underpinning our future.

在文章的最后，我想说，我们对自然的需要甚于自然对我们的需要。过去的几千年来，我们的世界一直在变化，无论有没有人类，它都将继续变化。通过修复不同类型的生态系统，保护生物多样性，才是拯救人类自身的唯一途径。

In the end, we need nature more than it needs us. Our world has been changing for millennia, and will continue to change – with or without us. Saving biodiversity, ecosystem by ecosystem, is the only way to save ourselves.

本文作者为联合国开发计划署驻华代表白雅婷

The article is authored by Beate Trankmann, UNDP Resident Representative in China