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Biodiversity Deal Mired in Politics
October 27, 2010

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Nagoya. Ministers from around the world began on Wednesday a final push for a UN 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 biodiversity 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.

Japan offered $2 billion to developing countries over three years from 2010, but it was unclear if Europe would match it.

Poor countries have refused to sign up to the 2020 target without more funding and agreement on a new UN protocol that would give them a fairer share of profits made by companies from their genetic resources.

A study by more than 170 scientists showed that about a fifth of the world’s vertebrates are threatened with extinction.

They used data for 25,000 species from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s 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 said.

World Bank head Robert Zoellick 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.

 

Reuters