Speeches by the Environment Minister
Message by ASAO Keiichiro, Minister of the Environment, Japan, on May 22, International Day for Biological Diversity 2025 (May 16, 2025)
Distinguished friends, I hope you're all having a great Biodiversity Day! Today is the day we declare once more, with renewed passion, our global vision of living in harmony with nature.
No one can doubt that nature is fundamental to our lives. No one can secure human well-being and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals without a healthy planet.
“Harmony with nature and sustainable development” is the theme for this year’s Biodiversity Day. At CBD COP10 in Aichi-Nagoya in 2010, Parties agreed to the 2050 Vision to realize a world of living in harmony with nature, and it has been inherited by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework or GBF.
Japan enacted a new law to achieve the 30by30 target, with a particular focus on enhancing activities of all sectors including business. This law provides legal framework for the promotion of engagement of diverse sectors, including by certifying “Nationally Certified Sustainably Managed Natural Sites”, which increases areas conserved by OECMs in Japan.
More than 900 organizations in Japan have declared their contributions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss or realize nature-positive by integrating the importance of biodiversity and the concept of natural capital into their activities.
To achieve our global goals, Japan prepared the 6th National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan or NBSAP of Japan 2023-2030. We are also supporting local governments to prepare Local Biodiversity Strategies in our country. Furthermore, Japan has been supporting developing country Parties to update their NBSAPs through the Japan Biodiversity Fund.
Biodiversity Day is not only the day for celebrating, but it is also the day for letting us all renew our commitments. Let’s work together! Let us break down silos beyond national and sectoral boundaries. Let us join forces to create a wave for a world of living in harmony with nature and for sustainable development.
Thank you very much.
No one can doubt that nature is fundamental to our lives. No one can secure human well-being and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals without a healthy planet.
“Harmony with nature and sustainable development” is the theme for this year’s Biodiversity Day. At CBD COP10 in Aichi-Nagoya in 2010, Parties agreed to the 2050 Vision to realize a world of living in harmony with nature, and it has been inherited by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework or GBF.
Japan enacted a new law to achieve the 30by30 target, with a particular focus on enhancing activities of all sectors including business. This law provides legal framework for the promotion of engagement of diverse sectors, including by certifying “Nationally Certified Sustainably Managed Natural Sites”, which increases areas conserved by OECMs in Japan.
More than 900 organizations in Japan have declared their contributions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss or realize nature-positive by integrating the importance of biodiversity and the concept of natural capital into their activities.
To achieve our global goals, Japan prepared the 6th National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan or NBSAP of Japan 2023-2030. We are also supporting local governments to prepare Local Biodiversity Strategies in our country. Furthermore, Japan has been supporting developing country Parties to update their NBSAPs through the Japan Biodiversity Fund.
Biodiversity Day is not only the day for celebrating, but it is also the day for letting us all renew our commitments. Let’s work together! Let us break down silos beyond national and sectoral boundaries. Let us join forces to create a wave for a world of living in harmony with nature and for sustainable development.
Thank you very much.