UN to tackle climate and extinction
Source: Agencies |
October 19, 2010, Tuesday
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DELEGATES from more than 190 nations kicked off a United Nations conference yesterday aimed at ensuring the survival of diverse species and ecosystems threatened by pollution, exploitation and habitat encroachment.
However, talks at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity still face the same issues that have hindered previous climate negotiations between rich and poor nations over what actions to take.
Scientists warn that unless we start doing more to protect species, extinctions will spike and the interconnected natural world will be irreparably damaged.
"We're on the verge on the major extinction spasm," said Russ Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and a field biologist who has spent decades studying primates.
"Healthy ecosystems are the underpinnings of human development."
If one part of the complex network of living organisms disappears - like bees, which perform the critical role of pollination and whose numbers are falling - the whole system can collapse, scientists argue.
"We are now close to a tipping point, that is, we are about to reach a threshold beyond which biodiversity loss will be irreversible, and may cross that threshold in the next 10 years, if we do not make proactive efforts," said Ryu Matsumoto, °?Japan's minister of environment, in a speech to open the meeting.
One of the most attention-getting issues is a proposal to set aside vast tracts of land and ocean as protected areas, although developing nations don't want this to undercut their prospects for economic development.
Another contentious issue will be trying to create a legal structure to equitably share access and benefits from genetic resources, such as plants that have medicinal value - which has long been a sore point for developing countries.
For example, the rosy periwinkle, a plant native to Madagascar, produces two cancer-fighting substances. Western drug companies have grown the plants and profited from them, but little of the money has returned to Madagascar. Developing countries argue that they should receive a share of the benefits.
Scientists estimate that the planet is losing species 100 to 1,000 times the historical average - pushing the Earth toward its sixth big extinction phase, the greatest since the °?dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.
Mittermeier said that in his field, of the 669 different kinds of primates, 49 percent are threatened, largely because of habitat destruction and hunting. "That's indicative of a real extinction risk," he said.
Under one of the 20 proposed goals for 2020, delegates will seek to agree on a percentage of land and ocean to be designated as protected areas, which can range from a strict nature reserve to an area managed for sustainable use of natural resources.
Some 193 governments have joined the biodiversity convention. Only three have not ratified it: the United States, Andorra and the Holy See of the Vatican.
However, talks at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity still face the same issues that have hindered previous climate negotiations between rich and poor nations over what actions to take.
Scientists warn that unless we start doing more to protect species, extinctions will spike and the interconnected natural world will be irreparably damaged.
"We're on the verge on the major extinction spasm," said Russ Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and a field biologist who has spent decades studying primates.
"Healthy ecosystems are the underpinnings of human development."
If one part of the complex network of living organisms disappears - like bees, which perform the critical role of pollination and whose numbers are falling - the whole system can collapse, scientists argue.
"We are now close to a tipping point, that is, we are about to reach a threshold beyond which biodiversity loss will be irreversible, and may cross that threshold in the next 10 years, if we do not make proactive efforts," said Ryu Matsumoto, °?Japan's minister of environment, in a speech to open the meeting.
One of the most attention-getting issues is a proposal to set aside vast tracts of land and ocean as protected areas, although developing nations don't want this to undercut their prospects for economic development.
Another contentious issue will be trying to create a legal structure to equitably share access and benefits from genetic resources, such as plants that have medicinal value - which has long been a sore point for developing countries.
For example, the rosy periwinkle, a plant native to Madagascar, produces two cancer-fighting substances. Western drug companies have grown the plants and profited from them, but little of the money has returned to Madagascar. Developing countries argue that they should receive a share of the benefits.
Scientists estimate that the planet is losing species 100 to 1,000 times the historical average - pushing the Earth toward its sixth big extinction phase, the greatest since the °?dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.
Mittermeier said that in his field, of the 669 different kinds of primates, 49 percent are threatened, largely because of habitat destruction and hunting. "That's indicative of a real extinction risk," he said.
Under one of the 20 proposed goals for 2020, delegates will seek to agree on a percentage of land and ocean to be designated as protected areas, which can range from a strict nature reserve to an area managed for sustainable use of natural resources.
Some 193 governments have joined the biodiversity convention. Only three have not ratified it: the United States, Andorra and the Holy See of the Vatican.
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