Speech of Minister Maria Ohisalo at the Convention on Biological Diversity, 15th Conference of the Parties, High Level Segment in Montreal, 16.12.2022

Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Maria Ohisalo gave the Finland's National Statement at the High-Level Segment of the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity on 16th of December 2022.

Thank you Chinese Presidency, colleagues, excellencies, friends of nature,

Being here in Canada feels like home. The nature is quite similar in Finland. We might not have great lakes, but we have a plentitude of them. 

Within about half an hour's ride from our capital's market square there are not one, but two national parks.

When one lives close to nature it is easy to understand how dependent we are on diverse nature.
But still, biodiversity is declining more rapidly than ever before, even in Finland. 
We are gathered here to find solutions on how to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and achieve a nature-positive world. 

We need to achieve ambitious actions and it includes:

• 30 % conservation of land, freshwater and ocean by 2030 and restoration with clear measureble targets;
• enhancing quality of biodiversity outside the protected areas in the remaining 70 % and halving the global footprint by 2030;
• mainstreaming biodiversity in all sectors and aligning financial flows from all sources with the biodiversity targets;
• redirecting and eliminating harmful subsidies and scaling-up nature positive incentives and economies;
• and finally having a strong national implementation. 

Finland also welcomes the messages from private sector to accelerate level of ambitious framework.

Dear friends of nature

Finland is committed to the High Ambition Coalition to achieve 30by30 protection. We will increase our biodiversity funding to developing countries by 25 % next year.

In addition, Finland will financially support the Convention on Biological Diversity and contribute to scientific-technical work of the Convention.

We have joined the 10 points plan for financing biodiversity, and we will work to enhance the linkages between climate and nature within the Finance Ministers Climate Coalition.
Implementation tools are highly important for Finland. These include indicators, effective monitoring and review framework.

We should not forget that indigenous peoples are the protectors of biodiversity worldwide, and we have to respect their rights. Likewise we must listen to youth – they shouldn’t face collapsing ecosystems in the future.

Both indigenous peoples and youth have been involved in updating our National Biodiversity Strategy and we encourage other countries to do the same. 

We face the same challenge from the tropics to the arctic: life is fading away. But we can halt biodiversity loss, together.