ICYMI: At U.N. Biodiversity Conference, CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory Highlights Biden-⁠Harris Administration’s Conservation Leadership at Home and Abroad Press Releases

CALI, COLOMBIA - This week, White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Brenda Mallory attended the 16^th Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, Colombia as the highest-ranking U.S. official in attendance. Chair Mallory highlighted the Biden-Harris Administration's historic conservation leadership including conserving more than 45 million acres of lands and waters and advancing President Biden's America the Beautiful Initiative towards our national conservation goal of protecting at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

"The unprecedented and alarming rate of nature loss is a threat to all people and the planet, and requires sweeping conservation action in the United States and abroad," said Brenda Mallory, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, the United States is delivering on the most ambitious conservation agenda in history and helping catalyze global action. Together, we are working to meet our shared goals and protect our lands, waters, ecosystems, and communities for generations to come."

In 2022 at COP15, governments across the globe reached a historic agreement to collectively commit to conserving at least 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030. This mirrors the national conservation goal President Biden set during his first days in office through the America the Beautiful Initiative, and the United States is on track to meet this goal. While the U.S. is not a party to the Convention on Biodiversity, the Biden-Harris Administration supports the conservation objectives of the Convention, and the U.S. is among the countries that provide the most support for global conservation efforts and implementation. In the past two years alone, the U.S. has invested more than $1 billion in international conservation efforts.

At COP16, Chair Mallory participated in events highlighting U.S. leadership on freshwater protection, nature-based solutions, coral reef depletion, and collaborative conservation of our lands and waters.

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the United States has led by example and conserved more than 45 million acres of lands and waters. Chair Mallory discussed some of the actions the Administration has taken advancing this historic conservation agenda, including:

• Establishing six new national monuments including Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni - Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument and Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, expanding San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, and restoring protections for three more;
• Protecting the Tongass National Forest, Bristol Bay Salmon Fisheries, Chaco Canyon, Thompson Divide and the Boundary Waters Area Watershed;
• Establishing the first Indigenous-focused National Marine Sanctuary;
• Authoring the first of its kind Indigenous Knowledge Guidance and signing over 200 co-stewardship agreements with Tribal Nations;
• Finalizing a Public Lands Rule to help guide the balanced management of America's public lands.

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