Slight progress in global biodiversity protection efforts but some species decline, new reports find

Associated Press

CALI, Colombia (AP) — Two reports on protecting biodiversity were released at a major UN summit on global biodiversity underway in Cali, Colombia. The United Nations Environment Programme reported Monday on global progress on a goal to protect and conserve 30% of the planet by 2030. The report found some progress has been made in the past four years, but that countries are not moving far or fast enough. The International Union for Conservation of Nature also released a new report on threatened species. It found more than one in three tree species worldwide faces extinction and now lists the Western European hedgehog as “near threatened”.