Signing Ceremony of the ASPY 2030 Agreement at COP 13

Dec 10, 2016

On Saturday, December 10, the GCF member states of; Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatan, signed the Agreement for the Sustainability of the Yucatan Peninsula 2030 (ASPY 2030) at the Conference of the Parties (COP13) on biodiversity. The objective of this agreement is to promote the climate leadership of these states, which make-up the Yucatan Peninsula, at the national and international level.

 

The Governors of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín González; Yucatan, Rolando Zapata Bello; and Campeche, Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas declared the agreement as a key opportunity to implement strategies for reducing the pledged emissions of the Peninsula as well as strategies to reduce deforestation, as committed under the Rio Branco Declaration, and restore forests as pledged to in the Bonn Challenge.

 

The Governor of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín González, stated that “with this agreement, the Yucatan Peninsula becomes the first region in the country to work in a coordinated manner with a defined agenda with scopes and sustainability indicators.”

 

Some of the agreement objectives include:

 
  • To join efforts from different sectors and actors to achieve low-emissions development and to promote the implementation of existing sustainability strategies.

  • To strengthen the interinstitutional coordination at the state level and with the federation, the private sector, academic, financial, civil society and international institutions.

 

The agreement is a collaborative commitment between the three states of the Peninsula. Some of the common goals for 2030 include: 

 
  • Zero net deforestation by 2030 (and 80% by 2020, per the pledge of the Rio Branco Declaration).

  • Restore two million hectares of land.

  • Ensure that 50% of the land area and coastlines of the Yucatan Peninsula are under conservation and/or management programs.

  • Promote Mayan biocultural sceneries.

  • Attract resources from private and/or international sources representing the equivalent of the investment of public resources currently designated to promote the green economy.

  • Restore 20% of reefs (54km) and 30% of the coastal sand dunes altered by human settlements (80km).

 

An unprecedented achievement in the area is the Declaration of the Private Sector for the Sustainability of the Yucatan Peninsula, which accompanies the ASPY. This declaration aims to bring together private sector companies concerned with moving towards environmentally-friendly production and working with communities within their spheres of action. Marcela Cristo, from the Modelo group, attended the signing ceremony on behalf of the national companies carrying out activities in the Yucatan Peninsula. Gustavo Rodríguez, president of Campeche’s Corporate Coordinating Council, attended the ceremony on behalf of local businesses.

 

In addition, the agreement has a collaborative component between the department of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), which establishes renewed relations for their collaboration to promote and facilitate land governance that aligns agricultural and forest policies.