$500 billion for global targets?

The discussions on setting a baseline for the mobilisation of resources for conservation of biodiversity dominated the ongoing discussions at the Conference of Parties-11 in Hyderabad on Tuesday. The parties present at the discussions of working group -2 voiced their concerns on fixing a baseline for the expenditure on conservation at national and global levels and the timeline from which the expenses will be accounted.

The present expenditure on conservation at a national level is estimated to be $30 billion and a 10-fold hike has been proposed by studies for a comprehensive global conservation programme. “An upper limit of $ 500 billion to $ 300 billion has been proposed to finance the global programme to achieve the Aichi targets.