保護生物多樣性及生態系統的成本驚人，但是專家們清楚，如果聽任破壞繼續，花費就會更多。

Somewhere between $103 billion and $895 billion a year – that is how much funding will be needed to “bend the curve” on global nature loss, according to several recent estimates.
最近的幾份估算研究顯示，要想扭轉全球生態損失的曲線，每年的花費將達到1030億至8950億美元。

Campaigners and academics have been striving to convince governments and the private sector that the current loss of nature – dubbed by scientists the “sixth mass extinction” – poses a threat not just to species and ecosystems, but also to economies.
科學家們將目前的生態破壞稱為“第六次大滅絕”。環保人士和專業學者一直試圖讓政府和私營部門相信，這種“滅絕”不僅會威脅自然物種和生態系統，還會同時威脅經濟發展。

Now, an expert panel convened by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has analyzed various estimates of the costs and benefits of conserving nature. The analysis is part of work surrounding international negotiations on a new deal for nature, which will be agreed in Kunming, China, in May 2021.
聯合國《生物多樣性公約》（簡稱CBD）召集的一個專家小組已經對保護自然的成本和收益進行了估算分析。2021年5月在昆明召開的大會上將達成一項全球性的自然保護新協議，而上述分析正是圍繞這一協議的若干國際談判相關工作的一部分。

New targets under discussion would see areas protected for nature on both land and sea increased from 17% to at least 30%. The new goals will replace the Aichi targets agreed in 2010, which the CBD recently confirmed had mostly failed.
正在討論的新目標擬將陸地和海洋保護面積從17%提升到至少30%。這些目標將取代2010年達成的“愛知目標”。《生物多樣性公約》前不久確定“愛知目標”大部分未能實現。

The lower funding range, of $103-178 billion, is based only on investments in expanding protected areas, the panel noted.
專家小組指出，1030億至1780億美元的較低資金估值是只考慮擴大保護區面積的情況下，按照目前每公頃保護區的預算支出計算得出的所需投資。

The larger range, of $631 billion to $895 billion, takes into account the cost of making the agricultural, fishery and forestry sectors sustainable, conserving biodiversity in urban and coastal areas, managing invasive species, and protecting urban water quality – all of which currently drive biodiversity loss.
而6310億至8950億美元的較高資金估值則考慮了農、林、漁等產業活動的可持續發展，城市和沿海生物多樣性保護，入侵物種管理，城市水質保護等減緩現有生態多樣性損失措施的成本。

Despite differing methodologies, the CBD expert panel noted that these estimates all reach the same conclusion: investment must increase substantially from current levels.
《生物多樣性公約》專家小組指出，雖然估算方式不同，但重點在于它們都得出了相同的結論，那就是必須在現有基礎上大幅提升生態保護資金支持力度。

The panel also stressed that continuing on current trajectories of nature destruction will lead to significant global economic costs. It pointed to an analysis by campaign group WWF that estimates the loss of “services” provided by nature, such as crop pollination and clean water supply, at nearly $500 billion a year. Investing to protect nature would save money in the longer term by reducing the amount needed to tackle problems caused by losing these services, it said.
專家小組還強調，如果任由全球生態繼續沿著當前的軌跡破壞下去，將給全球經濟帶來巨大的損失。世界自然基金會（WWF）項目組分析顯示，農作物授粉和清潔水供應等生態系統“服務”減少導致的損失將達到每年近5000億美元。投資生態保護能夠減少應對上述服務缺失而產生的成本，從長遠來看反而可以節約資金。

Aichi funding fail
“愛知目標”資金支持不足

Finance is a key issue for the new nature deal. Even though financial resources and official development assistance for biodiversity had roughly doubled to reach around $80-90 billion per year by 2020, the Aichi targets still failed.
資金對達成這項新的公約至關重要。到2020年生物多樣性改善相關的財政投入和官方發展援助已經翻了一番，基本上達到了每年約800億至900億美元。盡管如此，還是沒能實現“愛知目標”。

Not only was this funding nowhere near the scale needed, but it was also swamped by subsidies for activities that harmed biodiversity, such as the production of commodities linked to forest destruction, estimated at around $500 billion a year, according to the CBD’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 report.
根據《生物多樣性公約》發布的《第五版全球生物多樣性展望報告》，用于自然環境保護的資金不僅遠遠沒有達到所需規模，甚至還不如生物多樣性破壞活動獲得的補貼多，例如與森林破壞有關的商品生產每年獲得的補貼就達到近5000億美元。

However, so far, finance has not been discussed at all by negotiators, according to Li Shuo, senior global policy adviser for Greenpeace East Asia. Discussions leading up to the agreement of the Aichi goals set a precedent for this – though the goals were set in 2010, the level of public international finance was not agreed until 2012. A further meeting in 2014 saw this level doubled, but that was too late considering the deadline of 2020, he said.
綠色和平東亞分部全球政策顧問李碩（音譯）稱，到目前為止，談判各方尚未就生態保護資金問題進行討論。達成“愛知目標”的討論就是前車之鑒——盡管“愛知目標”是在2010年達成的，但直到2012年各方還未就國際公共財政支持規模達成一致。在2014年的進一步會談中，雖然達成的公共資金規模翻了一番，但對2020年的截止日期來說已經太晚了。

“Regardless of how many reports on finance are produced, they will not be useful if we don’t actually talk about it in official negotiations,” Li said. “If they don’t agree the whole finance package in one go in Kunming, then the credibility of the deal will be significantly challenged,” he added.
李碩說：“無論發布多少財務報告，如果我們沒有在正式談判中討論這個問題，那么這些報告就都是沒用的。”他補充說：“如果他們不能在昆明會議上就資金支持一次性達成一致，那么協議的公信力就將受到極大挑戰。”

Filling the gap
如何填補資金空白

The CBD’s finance panel recommends a three-pronged strategy to fill the funding gap:
《生物多樣性公約》財務問題小組建議采取三管齊下的策略來填補資金缺口，分別是

Subsidies that harm biodiversity need to be reduced or redirected.
減少或調整對生態有害的補貼；

Existing investments must be scaled up while more is generated from all sources.
增加現有投入，同時需要從包括國內和國際，私人和公共在內的所有渠道籌集更多資金；

The efficiency of resource use must be improved, through sound governance and planning, and effective monitoring and review of results.
通過健全的治理和規劃，以及有效的監督和結果審查來提高資源利用率。

Andrew Deutz, director of global policy, institutions and conservation finance at environmental organisation The Nature Conservancy (TNC), believes that up to half the funding gap for nature could be closed without new money.
大自然保護協會（TNC）全球政策、機制和生態金融總監安德魯·道依茨認為，多達一半的資金缺口可以在不增加新的資金投入的情況下得到彌補。

“Much of what we need is better deployment of existing funds and smarter policy and investment choices,” he said.
他說：“我們最需要的是更好地調配現有資金，以及更明智的政策和投資選擇。”

TNC, together with US-based think-tank the Paulson Institute, and academics from the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, this month published a blueprint for decision-makers on closing the funding gap, which it estimates at between $598 billion and $824 billion a year.
大自然保護協會、保爾森研究所以及康奈爾大學阿特金森可持續發展中心的多位學者本月發布了一份縮小自然資金缺口的決策者藍圖文件。該文件預計的資金缺口大約在5980億美元至8240億美元之間。

This will rely heavily on government action, with reform of harmful subsidies the single biggest opportunity, it said.
文件指出，縮小資金缺口需要政府的鼎力支持，而最可行的措施就是對有害補貼進行改革。

Governments must also develop new financial innovations for conservation, promote green investments, and support nature-based climate solutions, natural infrastructure and biodiversity offsets, it states. The right regulatory environment and incentives need to be in place to catalyse financial flows from the private sector, it said.
文件認為，各國政府還必須為保護自然環境開發新的金融創新措施，促進綠色投資，支持基于自然的氣候解決方案、自然基礎設施和生物多樣性補償，并且需要通過正確的監管環境和激勵措施來促進私營部門的資金流動。

Speaking at a webinar to launch the report, Jennifer Morris, TNC chief executive said that none of the solutions presented were novel. What was new was “the very clear conclusion that we need an all-of-the-above approach”.
大自然保護協會首席執行官詹妮弗·莫里斯在發布這份報告的網絡研討會上表示，這些解決方案都不新奇，新的是“非常明確地得出了上述所有方法一個都不能少的這樣一個結論”。

The conservation sector had recently been focusing on leveraging private funds for nature, but Morris said that though this was important, on its own the private sector could not deliver more than 3% of what was needed.
近來，環保部門一直致力于利用私有資金促進自然保護。但是莫里斯認為，盡管這很重要，但就其本身而言，私營部門提供的資金最多也不到所需資金的3%。

Ahead of COP15, governments should estimate the finance gap for protecting and restoring nature in their own country, and develop a road-map to fill it, she said.
她說，在昆明大會召開之前，各國政府應對保護和恢復本國自然資源面臨的資金缺口進行估算，并制定出填補這一缺口的路線圖。

“The biggest opportunities lie in the intersection of public and private sector investment. We need the right policies, regulations and incentives so that the vast majority of private sector spending helps not hurts nature. We will then put nature on our collective balance sheet as a critical asset we must protect,” she said.
她說：“最有可能填補這一缺口的解決方案是結合公共和私營領域的資金投入。我們需要頒布正確的政策、法規和激勵措施，確保絕大多數私營領域支出不損害自然。然后，我們將把自然資產作為必須保護的關鍵資產列入全人類的資產負債表中。”

來源：《英語世界》