As Delivered

Distinguished participants, colleagues, ladies, and gentlemen, good morning, good evening, and good afternoon, wherever you are.

Allow me to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Keidanren Nature Conservation Council, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations University - Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, for partnering on this side event.

The world faces a multi-dimensional planetary emergency of nature losses, degradation and climate change, exacerbated by widening inequality, conflict, insecurity and health crises. These are integrated crises that demand integrated solutions.

Nature underpins our societies, our economies and provides solutions to these global crises, and we cannot achieve the Sustainable Development Goals without it. It is the source of hope for a flourishing and thriving future. It is time we restore our relationship with nature - to one that is more balanced, less exploitative and more harmonious.

Indeed, the Satoyama Initiative is one such initiative that exemplifies ‘societies living in harmony with nature’, promoting resilience through nature-based solutions, that are socially inclusive.

Initiated in 2011, the Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative Programme (COMDEKS) now has over a decade of experience in improving resilience across a range of global ecosystems.

Over the past decade, UNDP has had the privilege of delivering the COMDEKS programme through the Small Grants Programme in close collaboration with the partners who have gathered here today.

Currently under COMDEKS Phase 4, 77 projects are under implementation in 15 diverse landscapes/seascapes. For example, in Peru’s Ácora landscape, 310 hectares of agricultural land have been brought under sustainable management, 53 native varieties of tubers and Andean grains have been reintroduced, and 467 farmers (of which 70% are women) have been trained in sustainable agricultural practices.

UNDP sincerely appreciates the Ministry of the Environment, Japan and Keidanren Nature Conservation Council for their trust and commitment with the generous additional funding for COMDEKS Phase 4.

With the Global Biodiversity Framework in place, the Nature Pledge is UNDP's commitment to provide accelerated and upscaled support to over 140 countries to reach their ambitious GBF targets. Through COMDEKS, we are strengthening biodiversity conservation, livelihood improvement, and poverty reduction at the community level.

UNDP, together with our partners, is committed to deepen our support to locally led conservation approaches to ensure the success of ecosystem restoration, poverty reduction, and achievement of the SDGs. The Global Biodiversity Framework includes an ambitious target to increase the global coverage of protected and conserved areas by 30% by the year 2030. This objective will surely not be met without re-imagining conservation as equitable and fundamentally socially inclusive, as has been promoted through the Satoyama Initiative and COMDEKS.

Thank you very much. I wish you all the success with it.