Fungimap is sending correspondence, at the request of the International Society for Fungal Conservation, urging the Australian Government to sign on to a fungal conservation pledge that will be presented by the governments of UK and Chile on 28 October at the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This is being held in Cali, Colombia, 21 October to 1 November.
The pledge:
“Towards the recognition of fungi as an independent kingdom of life in national and international legislation, policies and agreements, in order to advance their conservation and to adopt concrete measures that allow for maintaining their benefits to ecosystems and people in the context of the triple environmental crisis”.
This is a pivotal moment for fungal conservation. We strongly encourage the Australian Government to seize this opportunity and join the international effort to protect fungi.
Since we started our work in 1995, we have seen few opportunities as significant as this to advance fungal conservation globally. We endorse and strongly support this pledge.
How it came about:
A network of mycologists coordinated by the IUCN Fungi Specialist Group put together a document about the ‘Contribution of fungi to the Global Biodiversity Framework’.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15). It sets out a pathway toward achieving the vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050. The GBF includes four key goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030.
‘Contribution of fungi to the Global Biodiversity Framework’ demonstrates the importance of fungi for achieving the GBF goals and targets. The aim is to encourage countries, in meeting their GBF goals and targets, to integrate fungi into their conservation policies and actions.
At CO16, a number of mycologists are attending and will be interacting with delegates to encourage greater focus on fungi in efforts to meet GBF goals and targets – and using the document as an advocacy tool.
You can download ‘Contribution of fungi to the Global Biodiversity Framework’ at:https://drive.google.com/file/d/18t7xchAkh4RR_C29YA5lYl20l7yZzr2E/view?usp=drive_link
Each country that is a signatory to the CBD (as are Australia and New Zealand) has a CBD National Focus Point, which is listed on the CBD website.
An article published on 16 October 2024 in The Guardian provides some further background information.[1]
If you have any questions, or if there is any other way we can help you to support this pledge, please to contact Tamara Walton, National Coordinator of Fungimap Inc, at fungimap@gmail.com.
Michael Priest
President, Fungimap Inc
[1] Jonathan Watts, ‘Fungi could be given same status as flora and fauna under conservation plan’, The Guardian (online, 16 October 2024) <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/16/fungi-status-boost-conservation-cop16-uk-chile-biodiversity-plan>.
[1] Jennifer Kahn, ‘For this British biologist, there really is magic in those mushrooms’, Sydney Morning Herald (7 July 2023) <https://www.smh.com.au/national/for-this-british-biologist-there-really-is-magic-in-those-mushrooms-20230529-p5dc4k.html>.
Photo courtesy of Steve Axford