Germany
Hosts Global Conference on Biological Diversity
- Promoting a Global Response for Addressing
the Unprecedented Loss of Biodiversity.
Nairobi/Montreal / Bonn,
8 May 2008 - "Renewing agricultural
diversity of crops and livestock backed
by a functional natural support system is
the international community's best long-term
solution to meet the global food challenge,"said
Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the
Convention on Biological Diversity prior
to the start of the global conference on
biodiversity on 19 May 2008 in Bonn, Germany.
The meeting of 191 countries
takes place at a time when the international
community is faced with one of the most
severe food crisis of modern history. The
prices of basic staples-wheat, corn, rice-are
at record highs, and global food stocks
are at historical lows. Indeed, one of the
most important challenges facing mankind
is to feed a growing population in an increasingly
urbanized world confronted with the combined
impacts of climate change and the unprecedented
loss of biodiversity.
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The renewal of agricultural
biological diversity, including ways to
address the adverse effects of climate change,
is among the main issues for discussion
at the two-week conference. "Agriculture
is considered a prime example of how human
activities profoundly impact the ecological
functioning of the planet," said Dr.
Djoghlaf. "During the past 50 years,
humans have altered ecosystems more rapidly
and extensively than in any other period
in human history. Indeed, more land was
converted to cropland during the last fifty
years than in the previous two centuries.
This is why the issue of biodiversity and
agriculture is on the agenda of the Bonn
conference and is the theme for this year's
International Day for Biological Diversity,
which will be celebrated throughout the
world on 22 May."
Since the dawn of history,
humans have used more than 7,000 plant species
to satisfy their needs. During the last
100 years, seventy-five per cent of the
food-crop varieties we once grew are no
longer cultivated. Today, we rely on just
three-wheat, rice and maize-for over two
thirds of our calories. This increased dependency
on limited biological diversity drastically
escalates the global risk that it may be
impossible to sustain future food supplies
for a growing population in a warmer planet.
As stated by Mr. Djoghlaf, "The unfolding
food crisis is a symptom of a much more
profound problem."
The Bonn biodiversity
meeting will also address the accelerated
rate of deforestation. According to Mr.
Djoghlaf, "Every minute, 20 hectares
of forests are disappearing. Every year
more than 10 million hectares of forests
are destroyed. However, 80% of biodiversity
is found in forests, especially tropical
forests."
The conference takes
place two years before the deadline for
achieving the 2010 biodiversity target,
adopted in 2002 by 110 Heads of State and
Government, of significantly reducing the
rate of biodiversity loss at the global
and national level by 2010, as a contribution
to poverty alleviation and to the benefit
of all life on Earth. The participants will
also agree on a road map to finalize, by
2010, the negotiation of an agreed set of
rules on access to genetic resources and
sharing of the benefits derived from their
utilization. The "International regime
on access to genetic resources and the fair
and equitable sharing of benefits arising
out of their utilization" will be a
major tool for ensuring the successful implementation
of the Millennium development Goals and
eradicating poverty.
Achim Steiner, United
Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), said: "Our planet
has witnessed five mass extinctions over
the millions of years of life on Earth.
A sixth is currently under way, driven for
the first time in history by mainly human
impacts. Over the coming decades the pace
of loss of species could rise to 1,000 to
10,000 times the background rate. This is
nothing less than asset-stripping of the
globe's natural and nature-based capital-from
forests and coral reefs to river systems
and soils."
"There are many
shining examples of intelligent management
of the planet's nature-based resources.
The time has come to accelerate and replicate
them across the globe backed by sufficient
finance, creative market mechanisms, the
strengthening of efforts to achieve the
three objectives of the Convention on Biological
Diversity, including access to genetic resources
and benefit sharing, and a new sense of
urgency. In Bali, we had a breakthrough
on climate change. In Bonn, we need nothing
less than a breakthrough on biodiversity,"
he said.
Brunei Darussalam, one
of the richest countries in terms of biodiversity,
will be welcomed by the expected 6,000 participants
to the Bonn biodiversity meeting as the
191st Party to the Convention.
The meeting will also
be attended by Heads of State and Government,
and an unprecedented number of ministers
of the environment are also expected, together
with representatives of Governments, intergovernmental
and non-governmental organizations, indigenous
and local communities, youth, mayors, parliamentarians,
and the scientific, media and business communities.
The proceedings of the meeting will be broadcast
live over the Web and can be accessed through
the CBD website (www.cbd.int).
The Bonn meeting will
be concluded by the convening of a Global
Ministerial Forum with the expected participation
of more than 100 ministers. This meeting
will be opened by German Federal Chancellor
Ms Angela Merkel with the participation
of other Heads of State and Government.
At this session, the German Government is
expected to announce a specific commitment
for preserving biological diversity and
ecological systems titled the "Life
Web Initiative." This will be followed
by an invitation to all Governments for
making similar concrete commitments. "Germany
has established a Nature Alliance, and we
hope that the Bonn meeting will be remembered
as the cradle of a universal global alliance
for protecting life on Earth," said
Mr. Djoghlaf.
"The purpose of
this initiative is to match voluntary commitments
for the designation of new protected areas
and improved management of existing areas
with commitments for dedicated financing
of these areas," said Mr. Sigmar Gabriel,
Germany's Federal Minister for the Environment,
Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
He added that: "Progress
in establishing a global network of protected
areas is, in our view, one of the key topics
of the ninth meeting of the Conference of
the Parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity. The network of protected areas
is one of the central instruments for halting
the dramatic global loss of species and
habitats and for providing a solid basis
for the conservation of natural resources.
Intact habitats such as forests, wetlands
and coral reefs are also important sinks
for climate gases and play a fundamental
role in the natural regulation of the climate.
Conserving habitats is active climate protection."
The Convention describes protected areas
as a geographically defined area managed
primarily to achieve specific conservation
objectives, and considers them an important
stock of natural and cultural capital, yielding
flows of economically valuable goods and
services that benefit human populations.
In the words of Marina
Silva, President of the eighth meeting of
the Conference of the Parties, held in Curitiba,
Brazil, in 2006 and Minister of the Environment
of Brazil: "Two years ago in Curitiba,
a new phase of enhanced implementation of
the Convention on Biological Diversity was
born. The Bonn biodiversity meeting should
be a milestone in a new phase of enhanced
commitment to the implementation of the
three objectives of the Convention, including
tangible progress in the negotiations towards
the Bonn compact for the adoption of an
international regime on access to genetic
resources and benefit-sharing"
The Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD)
Opened for signature
at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in
1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity
is an international treaty for the conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity and
the equitable sharing of the benefits from
utilization of genetic resources. With 191
Parties, the CBD has near-universal participation
among countries committed to preserving
life on Earth. The CBD seeks to address
all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem
services, including threats from climate
change, through scientific assessments,
the development of tools, incentives and
processes, the transfer of technologies
and good practices and the full and active
involvement of relevant stakeholders including
indigenous and local communities, youth,
NGOs, women and the business community.
The headquarters of the Secretariat of the
Convention are located in Montreal,. For
additional information, please contact Marie
Aminata Khan
Information for journalists
To access the live webcast, please visit
the home page of the CBD website, www.cbd.int,
and follow the links indicated.
