* U.N. talks aim to set goals for 2020 to save species
* Ministers join Oct 18-29 meeting, urged to seal deal
* World Bank highlights economic value of ecosystems (Adds Brazil comment)
Chisa Fujioka and David Fogarty Reuters AlertNet 27 Oct 10;
NAGOYA, Japan, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Ministers from around the world began on Wednesday a final push for a U.N. deal to protect nature, urged by the World Bank to value the benefits of forests, oceans and rivers on economies and human welfare.
Senior officials from nearly 200 countries have gathered in Nagoya, Japan, to set new goals for 2020 to fight animal and plant extinctions after they missed a goal for a "significant reduction" in losses of biological diversity by 2010.
The meeting hopes to push governments and businesses to commit to sweeping steps to protect ecosystems under threat, such as forests that clean the air, insects that pollinate crops and coral reefs that nurture valuable fisheries.
World Bank head Robert Zoellick, speaking at the start of a three-day session of mostly environment ministers, said finance ministers and businesses also needed to take note of the value that nature provides for food, medicines, tourism and industry.
"Productivity of the land and seas is diminishing, and with them the ecosystem services that are crucial for people to get out of poverty," he said. "Endangered species are fading away forever before our very eyes."
Envoys have been negotiating since last week for agreement on the new 2020 target and a 20-point strategic plan that aims to protect fish stocks, fight the loss and degradation of natural habitats and conserve larger land and marine areas.
But countries have been split on the level of ambition and have bickered over who will pay for the efforts. Current funding for fighting biodiversity loss is about $3 billion a year but some developing nations say this should be increased 100-fold.
FUNDING
Japan, chair of the talks, offered $2 billion to developing countries over three years from 2010, but it was unclear if Europe would match the efforts.
The United States has not ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity and is taking part in the Oct 18-29 talks only as an observer.
"We haven't really come here with a mindset of a pledging conference," Karl Falkenberg, head of the European Commission's environment department, told a news conference. "Europe, over the last eight years, has spent 1 billion euros annually already."
Poor countries have refused to sign up to 2020 conservation targets without more funding and agreement on a new U.N. protocol that would give them a fairer share of profits made by companies, such as pharmaceutical firms, from their genetic resources.
Developing countries could gain billions of dollars from the so-called access and benefit-sharing (ABS) protocol but envoys are divided over issues such as the scope of the pact and some businesses are worried about potential higher costs. [ID:nSGE69O073]
The plight of nature was highlighted in a study by more than 170 scientists showing that about a fifth of the world's vertebrates are threatened with extinction. [ID:nSGE69P0BS] They used data for 25,000 species from the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.
Brazil stressed the need to seal a deal, urging compromise and flexibility.
"We are all tired of endless meetings which just postpone the solutions for the problems. We are also tired of decisions which are dissociated from real life," Environment Miniser Izabella Teixeira told the meeting.
"In the last 10 days, we had time enough to see the difference that separate us. We have now only three days to see what unites us."
(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
Earth is 'at a tipping point', warns Harrison Ford
Jerome Cartillier Yahoo News 27 Oct 10;
NAGOYA, Japan (AFP) – On screen he has battled Nazis, stormtroopers and terrorists to save democracy, freedom or civilisation from clear and present danger. Now Harrison Ford describes his latest role as a real-life fight for the future of this planet.
"What is at stake is the ability of nature to provide services to the human community that we can't afford to do for ourselves," said the actor, 68, in an interview with AFP.
He was speaking in the central Japanese city of Nagoya, where he is urging the 193 member countries of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to use their 10-day meeting to protect vast swathes of the Earth's surface.
"Intact ecosystems provide us with fresh water, clean air, help produce healthy soils, are the source of genetic material from which to derive pharmaceuticals and regenerate our food supply.
"These are all the free services of nature," he said, but they are under threat from environmental degradation and "bold and decisive" action had to be taken now.
"One of our missions is to create a sense of urgency, help people understand that... just because they don't see it in their own lives, the effects are everywhere.
"Where it registers in everyone's life is in the economic impact; higher costs of food, depletion of fish stocks etc.
"The urgency can't be overemphasised... We are at a tipping point."
The Indiana Jones star -- who had his chest waxed two years ago in a stunt to publicise tropical deforestation -- insisted he had "really no ambition to be a celebrity spokesman for anything".
But he has sat on the board of the campaign group Conservation International for 20 years.
According to the organisation, 25 percent of the world's land surface needs to be protected and 15 percent of its oceans to effectively preserve biodiversity and combat global warming, up from the current 13 percent and less than one percent respectively.
"That's why our fishery is in such a poor shape -- 70 to 80 percent of the fish that we eat are in danger of disappearing or close to extinction," said Ford.
The figures are the subject of tough negotiations in Nagoya, with no agreement reached by Wednesday.
A proposed compromise of 20 percent for land and 10 percent for seas was rejected earlier this week by several countries including China and India.
A global agreement was essential, said Ford.
"We all make small efforts in our lives and individual efforts do count but we have to really effect a change of scale that really is only possible through international engagements."
The American hoped that public opinion would ensure his country, one of the few not to have ratified the CBD, soon did so, saying it had so far not been politically "necessary".
"There are many many small victories, positive effects. Certainly we have encouraged the business community to behave more responsibly, we have educated them to the fact that consumer base now holds them responsible for their behaviour.
"The bigger picture is that we need to do more."
But he dismisses the idea that his own particular field, blockbuster cinema, can play a role.
While Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth "works very well", he said, "movies are there for the entertainment.
"Certainly we can engage people emotionally, but the solutions to the environmental issues are so much more complicated.
"We want people to recognise that solutions are complicated and specific. I am just not sure that the profit making movie business is the right place to deal with these issues."
