Hopes for treaty rise at UN biodiversity summit

Karl Malakunas Yahoo News 28 Oct 10;

NAGOYA, Japan (AFP) – Hopes rose that rich and poor nations would be able to forge a historic treaty to protect the world's ecosystems after grinding progress was made at a UN summit on Thursday, delegates said.

Representatives of more than 190 countries have been meeting in the central Japanese city of Nagoya for nearly two weeks in an effort to set goals on saving habitats which would help to end the mass extinction of species.

With talks due to wind up Friday, delegates said last-minute negotiations among environment ministers had helped bridge key differences between developed and developing countries that had threatened to derail the event.

"Things are unlocking, but there is very little time left," France's state secretary for the environment, Chantal Jouanno, told AFP.

The European Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potocnik, also emerged from talks in the afternoon to post an optimistic message on microblogging website Twitter: "Can we do it? Yes we can. But do the others agree?"

The key dispute has been over fairly sharing the benefits of genetic resources such as wild plants.

Brazil and other developing countries argue rich nations and companies should not be allowed to freely take genetic resources to make medicines, cosmetics and other products for huge profits.

Brazil has maintained throughout that it would not agree to a 20-point plan on protecting nature unless there was first a deal on genetic resources with a legally binding "Access and Benefits Sharing Protocol".

The planned protocol would ban so-called "biopiracy" and outline how countries with genetic resources would share in the benefits of the assets' commercial development.

Brazil's Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira told reporters that a deal on genetic resources had not yet been reached, but she believed a full pact on all the environment issues could still be reached by Friday night.

"I'm maintaining our optimism about all this. We believe that we have political momentum. We are working hard and we are optimistic about the results," she said.

However other delegates said they were concerned that time was running out to strike a deal, particularly as some contentious issues would still have to be approved by their home governments.

One of the other key planks of the planned treaty delegates are hoping to sign on Friday is a strategic plan that commits countries to 20 targets for protecting ecosystems over the next decade.

These targets would aim to conserve large areas of coral reefs, waterways and forests, cut pollution and restore degraded ecosystems.

However, environment groups are worried that some of the targets that are likely to be agreed upon will not be ambitious enough, particularly ones that aim to protect waterways.

While Greenpeace and other groups want 20 percent of coastal and marine areas protected, they say China and India are lobbying for six percent or lower.

"People are hopeful that something is going to come out of this event but there's a concern over whether it is going to be strong as some countries would like," Greenpeace delegation leader Nathalie Ray said.

The overarching goal of the Nagoya summit is to end the destruction of ecosystems that scientists say is causing the world's plant and animal species to vanish at up to 1,000 times the natural rate.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature warned last year that the world was experiencing its sixth mass extinction in history, with the last one 65 million years ago wiping out dinosaurs.

The treaty to be signed in Nagoya would come under the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, which has 193 member nations. However the United States is not a party to the convention.

Pathogen row blocking biodiversity deal
Nagoya talks close to agreement but countries remain split over access to microscopic germs and the sharing of benefits from research and medicines
Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk 28 Oct 10;

A row over microscopic germs and monitoring mechanisms is holding back a global deal to protect nature as time runs out for negotiators at this week's UN biodiversity conference in Nagoya.

A final spurt of progress has taken the talks close to an agreement, but with only one day remaining and several key issues still to be resolved, there are fears that the time could run out before a protocol can be signed.

Among the most obstinate sticking points of the conference is how to treat pathogens, the germs responsible for virus pandemics such as bird flu and Sars, that are also essential for the development of lucrative vaccines.

Developing nations say they are willing to provide access to such organisms during medical emergencies as long as wealthy countries share the benefits from researching and patenting medicines.

But with billions of dollars at stake, pharmaceutical lobbies in Europe, Canada, Australia and South Korea are pressing for greater access and reduced benefit-sharing.

Despite the obstacle, the UK environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, said she was optimistic that the Nagoya talks would have a positive outcome – not just for biodiversity but also for the UN climate talks in Cancún, Mexico next month. "We are probably doing better than people anticipated. If we get an agreement here, it can help negotiations in Cancún," said Spelman. "I am cautiously optimistic that what we have done so far is good for relations between states."

European Union delegates say they are willing to provide extra funds for biodiversity, but first it was necessary to identify a clear strategy for achieving ambitious conservation objectives. Substantial progress has been made towards an agreement on those objectives, including a likely commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2020 and the expansion of protected areas to cover 20% of the world's land.

The long-standing dispute over access to microscopic organisms has flared up on several occasions, most notably during the bird flu crisis, when Indonesia alleged that it had provided pathogens to help find a vaccine but was then denied a fair share of the benefit when the drugs were patented overseas.

International disagreements over how best to handle this subject have been compounded by internal differences between the health, trade and environment ministries in some EU member states. Delegates at Nagoya have said they have to refer back to political masters in their home countries before making a decision, which has slowed down the process and, in some cases, held it up completely.

"They say they have no flexibility, but they expect developing nations to compromise. That isn't negotiation, that is bullying," said Yoke-Ling Chee, director of the Third World Network, a development NGO. To thrash out an agreement, the Japanese chair has set up a series of small working groups, which have helped to close differences.

However, the discussions did not adequately cover the thorny issue of compliance – how to check that countries and companies are using only approved genetic material – from other nations. This threatens to scupper negotiations because India, Cuba and other nations say this subject has not been properly dealt with.

Spelman said a basic political agreement had been reached regarding access and benefit sharing from pathogens and derivative products from genetic resources.

Brazil's environment minister Izabella Teixeira said she held out hope that protocol could still be agreed by the end of the conference.

"I'm maintaining our optimism about all this. We believe that we have political momentum. We are working hard and we are optimistic about the results," she said. "A deal here can help Cancún. If we get a good result, it will show the world that multilateral negotiations can make strong progress and new perspectives are possible."

Delegates estimated that 90% of nations were in agreement on most of the core issues, but it was still possible that a single party could sink the process before the scheduled close on Friday afternoon.