UN draft deal on biodiversity calls for increasing aid for developing countries

MONTREAL, Canada, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- A UN draft deal on biodiversity protection calls for increasing international financial aid from developed countries to developing countries to at least 20 billion U.S. dollars per year by 2025, and to at least 30 billion dollars per year by 2030, according to documents released on Sunday.

The aid will particularly go to the least developed countries and small island developing states, as well as countries with economies in transition.

The draft deal was put on table by China, which is chairing the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The deal includes 23 action-oriented targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030.

COP15 is scheduled to conclude on Monday with the adoption of a post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The draft text has been put under discussion in the last two days.

The document also appeals that by 2030, at least 30 percent of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration in order to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

It also calls for reducing the rates of introduction and establishment of other known or potential invasive alien species by at least 50 percent by 2030, and eradicating or controlling invasive alien species in priority sites, such as islands.