On Thursday 31 October 2024, Luxembourg's Mouvement Ecologique issued a press release on the 16th United Nations Conference on Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which is taking place these days in Cali, Colombia.
The Mouvement Ecologique stated "In Cali, the global community must anchor effective measures to protect and restore nature. Because the situation is dramatic: the entire world is threatened by ecological collapse and the disappearance of the bases of human life. It is imperative, as demanded by nature protection organisations around the world, to establish clear guidelines for monitoring the state of nature, to guarantee financing for the protection of biodiversity on a global scale and to respect human rights".
Luxembourg's Minister of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, Serge Wilmes, also participated in this conference on Biodiversity.
The Mouvement Ecologique added "It is extremely worrying, however, that just one month before the international conference on biodiversity, the EU Member States voted in favour of lowering the protection status of the wolf – Luxembourg supported this decision. This seems almost schizophrenic when you know that, at the world conference on biodiversity, the countries of the global South are being asked to redouble their efforts to protect their large predators…"
It argued that Luxembourg is "rapidly and seriously missing the targets set, for which we want to convince other countries" and claimed " we have not seen that the Minister for Biodiversity himself is assuming his responsibilities in this country".
It listed a few examples / claims:
- In discussions on the direction of agricultural policy, aspects relating to biodiversity are being left aside, and the two ministries are far from the necessary inter-ministerial approach
- Protected habitats, such as poor hay meadows, have declined significantly despite their protected status, and the situation of grassland breeding birds has continued to deteriorate, as shown in the latest edition of the Red List;
- The measures included in the national nature protection plan, which must be achieved by 2030, are progressing very slowly: each year, 570 hectares of poor hay meadows on the plains should be restored, while in reality, less than 10% are restored;
- The government plans to abandon compensation measures in urban areas without any scientific basis, to the detriment of animal species that are already threatened and without taking into account the quality of life of local residents;
- Ecosystem services are still not sufficiently taken into account and valued. Farmers are still subsidised based on the agricultural area and not on the ecosystem services they provide to society - the economic, health and social benefits of biodiversity protection are still clear;
It concluded by describing Luxembourg's subsidy policy as "misguided" and "harmful to nature" and that "aggressive nature protection measures are only making timid progress", and called upon Minister Wilmes, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, "to act consistently".
