The City of Kingston voted this month to commit to a global effort to protect the biodiversity of ecosystems.
The Montreal Pledge, as it’s called, was established following the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022. More than 60 other cities have joined on the pledge so far, which focuses on 15 action items to protect global ecosystems.
City council in Kingston voted on March 19 to contribute to the effort. Julie Salter-Keane, manager of climate leadership with the city, said the efforts of conservation are vital to the world.
“The commitment itself is around council’s strategic priorities of 2023-2026,” she said, referring to what the city notes as a strategy for protecting biodiversity within its area.
“Creating a biodiversity plan, at the same time, is affirming our commitment. We’re already doing a number of actions within the 15 action (items). And we’ll further continue our involvement through those implementations.”
In a release on Monday, the city said the actions items are broken into three categories: reducing threats to biodiversity, sharing the benefits of biodiversity, and creating solutions through work between governments, management, and education.
Cities partaking in the pledge can voluntarily monitor their progress, the release reads, in order to track their progress with the action items.
Speaking to Global News, Salter-Keane said one of the action items includes having planning regulations in order to protect biodiversity. Another one, she added, has to do with climate change and having a mitigation and adaptation plan in place.
“With council affirming their commitment to the Montreal Pledge, they’re committing to protecting and conserving our ecosystems,” she said.