NAIROBI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — Kenya on Friday launched the National Biodiversity Coordination Mechanism to enhance conservation efforts.
The goal of the mechanism is to facilitate and enhance the coordination of biodiversity-related activities and initiatives in the country, Festus Ng’eno, principal secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry, told journalists in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
“It seeks to support the implementation of national and international commitments to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity for current and future generations,” he said.
The mechanism will be instrumental in achieving the goals set out in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which calls for urgent action to reduce threats to biodiversity and meet people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing by 2030, Ng’eno said.
The coordination mechanism will facilitate the alignment of biodiversity conservation goals, policies, and practices at the national, county, and community levels, ensuring a unified approach to protecting Kenya’s natural resources, he noted.
Erustus Kungu, director-general of Kenya Wildlife Service, said the country is faced with unprecedented challenges such as climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, and over-exploitation of natural resources that are threatening biodiversity.
It is imperative that Kenya collaborates on strategies that will help mitigate these threats and promote biodiversity conservation, he said.
Kungu said the newly launched mechanism will enable Kenya to implement major international conventions, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
