Marlowe Hood, Yahoo News 30 May 08;
UN talks on Friday yielded a package of measures aimed at staving off what scientists fear is a mass extinction of Earth's species and blocking irreparable damage to the ecosystems on which human life depends.
After a 12-day conference, 191 nations attending the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to set up the first-ever deep-sea nature preserve and expand reserves on land to an area that, if combined, would be nearly twice the size of Germany.
In another first, a long-stymied effort to compensate developing nations for "genetic resources" extracted to make drugs and cosmetics also gained traction.
German Environment minister Sigmar Gabriel hailed progress on this so-called access and benefits-sharing regime as a "real success."
Other measures passed included a de-facto ban on sowing oceans with chemicals, an experimental process championed by some nations -- notably Australia -- as a potential carbon-reducing solution to global warming.
And the conference also took the first steps toward setting global standards for developing biofuels, a renewable energy that has been accused of accelerating deforestation and widening hunger as farmers swap food crops for fuel crops.
Green groups were critical, though. They slammed the outcome as badly failing the UN Millennium Development Goal which sets 2010 as the deadline to "substantially reduce" biodiversity loss.
The bloc of 77 developing countries and China approved the consensus package but issued a warning.
A major reduction of biodiversity loss by 2010 "is unlikely at the current rates," they said. "Let history not say about our age that we were rich in resources but poor in will."
They also called for benefit-sharing from genetic resources to be given legal teeth. This was an issue that divided the industrialised north and the developing south.
Gabriel acknowledged that Bonn meeting "achieved less than we should have, given the dimension of the problems."
But, he argued, "achieving unanimity among 191 states is difficult."
The conference agreed on criteria for marine protected areas in the high seas and deep-sea habitats.
On land, tens of millions of hectares (acres) are to be earmarked for nature preserves, under initiatives unveiled Indonesia, Malaysia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bosnia.
Another hotly contested issue -- how to describe the link between climate change and biodiversity -- ended with a vague statement which said efforts to reduce and adapt to global warming should avoid potentially negative impacts on biodiversity.
Scientists say that species are becoming extinct at a dizzying rate -- between 100 and 1,000 times the natural pace of extinction.
One in four mammals, one bird in eight, one third of all amphibians and 70 percent of plants are under threat.
The Biodiversity Convention is an offspring of the 1992 Earth Summit, but it has long played the frustrating role of junior partner to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Rio's other landmark treaty.
The Bonn meeting was framed as an attempt to catapult Earth's other environmental crisis to greater prominence.
In attempt to show the dollar value of natural resources, development economist Pavan Sukhdev estimated that the lost benefits of biodiversity and ecosystems cost as much as 3.1 trillion dollars a year, or six percent of the planet's gross national product.
Another initiative at the conference was to set up an independent panel of scientists to deliver regular assessments on the state biodiversity, modelled on the lines of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 500 million euros (785 million dollars) in funding for biodiversity work before 2013, and an equal amount annually thereafter. But other major economies are yet to follow suit.
U.N. meeting agrees steps to save wildlife
Reuters 30 May 08;
(Reuters) - Nearly 200 governments have agreed steps to help save animal and plant life from threats including pollution and climate change, ending a 12-day U.N. meeting on biological diversity.
The conference agreed:
OCEAN FERTILISATION
- a moratorium on projects to tackle climate change by adding nutrients to the seas to spur growth of carbon-absorbing algae, according to host Germany.
GENETIC RESOURCES
- a roadmap for working out by 2010 new rules, with legally binding elements, on access to natural resources and sharing their benefits. Firms want to tap genetic resources, for example for medicines, but some local people accuse them of "biopiracy" and want a greater share of the rewards.
PROTECTED AREAS
- a framework for a global network of areas to protect wildlife which gives instructions to governments and donors to mobilize resources for the zones. New protected areas were announced in the Balkans and in the Caribbean.
Germany launched "Lifeweb", a plan to extend the world's protected areas by getting industrialized countries to donate cash to help developing countries meet the costs. It also pledged 500 million euros ($773.9 million) to 2012 plus 500 million euros a year after that to help save forests. Norway matched that.
MARINE AREAS
- to set criteria for the creation of marine protected areas. While 12 percent of the world's land area is set aside for wildlife, only about 0.5 percent of the oceans are designated.
FORESTS
- to designate 10 percent of all existing forest ecosystems as protected areas and nations also called for a clampdown on illegal logging. Experts say 20 percent of world greenhouse gases come from forest destruction.
BIOFUELS
- to adopt a work programme to assess the impact of biofuels on biodiversity by 2010. Such fuels can threaten biodiversity, for instance if forests are cleared or wetlands drained to grow crops for fuel.
(Compiled by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Progress at UN biodiversity forum
Reuters 30 May 08;
Nearly 200 countries have agreed on measures to protect the world's most threatened wildlife.
At a Bonn conference they pledged to set up a deep-sea nature reserve and increase by tens of millions of hectares the area of land protected.
The Convention on Biological Diversity meeting also agreed to prepare a firm position on the benefits and drawbacks of biofuels by the next forum in 2010.
But environmentalists said the outcome of the UN forum was unsatisfactory.
They said progress was too slow compared to the threat to the world's species.
'Real progress'
Some 5,000 delegates from 191 countries attended the 12-day conference in the former German capital.
They agreed to set up the deep-sea nature preserve, expand reserve land to an area that - if combined - would be almost twice the size of Germany.
Other agreed steps included a ban on experiments to boost plankton growth to reverse climate change, because of the potential risks to other animals.
The delegates also pledged to set global standards for developing biofuels, a renewable energy that has been blamed for deforestation.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin would commit 500 million euros (£392m) in funding for biodiversity work over the next for years, and another 500m euros each year after that.
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel admitted later that he had not expected "real progress to be made on so many points".
But environmentalists said the progress achieved at the conference was still failing the UN Millennium Development Goal, which aims to "substantially reduce" biodiversity loss by 2010.
Scientists have warned that many species are becoming extinct at a rapid rate.
UN biodiversity conference ends with package to protect wildlife
Channel NewsAsia 31 May 08;
BONN, Germany - UN talks on Friday yielded a package of measures aimed at staving off what scientists fear is a mass extinction of Earth's species and blocking irreparable damage to the ecosystems on which human life depends.
After a 12-day conference, 191 nations attending the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to set up the first-ever deep-sea nature preserve and expand reserves on land to an area that, if combined, would be nearly twice the size of Germany.
In another first, a long-stymied effort to compensate developing nations for "genetic resources" extracted to make drugs and cosmetics also gained traction.
German Environment minister Sigmar Gabriel hailed progress on this so-called access and benefits-sharing regime as a "real success."
Other measures passed included a de-facto ban on sowing oceans with chemicals, an experimental process championed by some nations -- notably Australia -- as a potential carbon-reducing solution to global warming.
And the conference also took the first steps toward setting global standards for developing biofuels, a renewable energy that has been accused of accelerating deforestation and widening hunger as farmers swap food crops for fuel crops.
Green groups were critical, though. They slammed the outcome as badly failing the UN Millennium Development Goal which sets 2010 as the deadline to "substantially reduce" biodiversity loss.
The bloc of 77 developing countries and China approved the consensus package but issued a warning.
A major reduction of biodiversity loss by 2010 "is unlikely at the current rates," they said. "Let history not say about our age that we were rich in resources but poor in will."
They also called for benefit-sharing from genetic resources to be given legal teeth. This was an issue that divided the industrialised north and the developing south.
Gabriel acknowledged that Bonn meeting "achieved less than we should have, given the dimension of the problems."
But, he argued, "achieving unanimity among 191 states is difficult."
The conference agreed on criteria for marine protected areas in the high seas and deep-sea habitats.
On land, tens of millions of hectares (acres) are to be earmarked for nature preserves, under initiatives unveiled Indonesia, Malaysia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bosnia.
Another hotly contested issue -- how to describe the link between climate change and biodiversity -- ended with a vague statement which said efforts to reduce and adapt to global warming should avoid potentially negative impacts on biodiversity.
Scientists say that species are becoming extinct at a dizzying rate -- between 100 and 1,000 times the natural pace of extinction.
One in four mammals, one bird in eight, one third of all amphibians and 70 percent of plants are under threat.
The Biodiversity Convention is an offspring of the 1992 Earth Summit, but it has long played the frustrating role of junior partner to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Rio's other landmark treaty.
The Bonn meeting was framed as an attempt to catapult Earth's other environmental crisis to greater prominence.
In attempt to show the dollar value of natural resources, development economist Pavan Sukhdev estimated that the lost benefits of biodiversity and ecosystems cost as much as 3.1 trillion dollars a year, or six percent of the planet's gross national product.
Another initiative at the conference was to set up an independent panel of scientists to deliver regular assessments on the state biodiversity, modelled on the lines of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 500 million euros (785 million dollars) in funding for biodiversity work before 2013, and an equal amount annually thereafter. But other major economies are yet to follow suit.
- AFP /ls
