The Ukrainian delegation at the international conference of the Ramsar Convention (COP14) called on the participants to react decisively to Russia's destruction of the environment.
About 600,000 hectares of wetlands of international importance have already been destroyed by military aggression, the Ministry of Environment reports on Facebook.
The message noted that the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance is being held from November 5 to 13 in a mixed format in Geneva (Switzerland) and Wuhan (China). More than 160 countries of the world are participating in COP14.
The participants of the event will consider the results of the implementation of the Ramsar Convention in 2019-2022 and outline the priorities for the further improvement of this international legal instrument for the next three-year period.
Ukraine was supported in a joint statement by 31 countries of the world, namely: Andorra, Albania, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Great Britain and USA.
They:
- drew attention to the negative consequences of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation for the environment of Ukraine, in particular in the context of the destruction of about 600 thousand hectares of wetlands of international importance in the Russian Federation;
- condemned Russia's undermining of the principles of operation of the Ramsar Convention;
- called on the Russian Federation to immediately stop aggression against Ukraine, in particular the destruction of natural objects;
- emphasized the need to carry out an environmental assessment of the damage caused by the Russian Federation to Ukraine and the European region, and to provide effective international assistance for the restoration of protected areas.
The authors noted that the Ramsar Convention is the first global agreement on the protection and conservation of natural resources. Currently, it covers all aspects of the conservation and balanced use of wetland ecosystems, valuable for the preservation of biological diversity and ensuring human existence.
"Since the previous 13th meeting of the Conference in 2018, 11 wetlands of Ukraine have been added to the List of Wetlands of International Importance. Therefore, today the Ramsar list contains 50 Ukrainian wetlands of international importance, with a total area of 951.5 thousand hectares," the message says.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the Minister of Environment Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets noted that the destruction of the environment in Ukraine puts under the threat of destruction of 2.5 million hectares of nature protection network in Europe, namely 17 Ramsar sites.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, Serhiy Vlasenko, adviser to the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, said that the armed aggression of the Russian Federation is exacerbating the climate crisis in the world.
