Over 100 countries will
meet for the Biodiversity Conference, aimed
to avoid environmental collapse
07/10/2010
Brazil plans to take the leading role
in negotiations during the UN Conference
on Biological Diversity (COP-10), to be
held from October 18 to 29 in Nagoya, Japan.
The Brazilian goal is to reaffirm the pact
among the signatories of the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD) to achieve
the targets set in Johannesburg in South
Africa in 2002.
The country will also
advocate the sharing of benefits arising
from the genetic heritage of biodiversity,
the main point at the convention sustained
by the 17 megadiverse countries - the ones
home to most species on Earth, and together
hold about 70% of the entire planet's biodiversity
- among them Brazil. Preparatory meetings
have been held by megadiverse nations in
order to establish a joint proposal to be
presented during COP-10.
The meeting in Japan
will gather some 100 countries, including
the 17 megadiverse countries and major economic
powers. The aim is to seek solutions which
can quickly take effect in order to avoid
new environmental collapses across the planet.
In this International
Year of Biodiversity - established by the
UN - the nations will discuss the loss of
biodiversity, which affects not only animals
and plants, but interferes with the maintenance
of human life and the balance of the planet.
The losses resulting from the reduction
process of species reached an annual figure
between $ 2 trillion and $ 4.5 trillion,
according to the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP).
Global diversity declines
- According to the third report of the Global
Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3), released in
early May by the United Nations (the Portuguese
version was launched in May by the MMA),
no country has fully complied with the goals
of reducing loss of biodiversity in their
territories between 2002 and 2010.
The document is an official
report of the Convention on Biological Diversity,
established in 1992, and will guide discussions
among leaders of nations participating in
the Biodiversity Summit in Japan. This study
shows that biodiversity loss is reaching
a global level almost irreversible.
Between 1970 and 2006,
the number of individuals of vertebrate
species had a 30% decline in the world,
and the trend, according to GBO3, is that
the reduction will continue, especially
among marine animals and tropical regions.
To reverse the serious environmental damage,
economic investment from about $ 45 billion
per year around the planet would be needed.
The report points out
the five main factors of pressure on biodiversity:
habitat loss and degradation (converted
to plantations, pasture, and urban areas),
climate change, pollution, overexploitation
of natural resources and the presence of
invasive alien species. According to the
World Conservation Union, human action causes
0.2% of the loss of species every year,
caused by fire, logging, hunting and wildlife
trade.
Extraction without proper
management and mining, among other factors
of human intervention, are also causes of
the growing process of extinction, due to
the needs of a population of 6.5 billion
people, which is expected to increase to
7 billion by 2012.
Brazilian example -
There are other points in the document that
UNEP considers critical. The Amazon is cited
as an area subject to irreparable harm,
in part driven by deforestation and forest
fires, and also by dynamic changes in regional
rainfall and species extinction.
Brazil is cited as an
example with regard to the creation of protected
areas (conservation units). Of the 700 square
miles turned into protected areas around
the world since 2003, almost three quarters
are located in Brazilian soil, a result
largely attributed to the Program of the
Amazon Protected Areas.
The Brazilian Ministry
of the Environment is negotiating with state
governments and other ministries to create
new protected areas: 54,280 hectares in
the Cerrado Biome, 405,900 hectares in the
Atlantic Forest, 600,000 hectares in Amazonia,
1,230,000 hectares in the Caatinga and 101,200
acres in the Coastal and Marine.
Another key strategy
adopted by Brazil to combat deforestation
and species extinction is the satellite
monitoring of all biomes, a procedure which
by 2008 was achieved only in the Amazon
and in part of the Atlantic Forest.
Monitoring is a key
initiative as it allows establishing action
plans for monitoring, control and combating
deforestation. Also included sustainable
alternatives to the regions where deforestation
is still practiced.
Exotic and invasive
- Brazil launched in 2009 the National Strategy
on Invasive Alien Species. The program guides
the different spheres of government to prevent
and mitigate the negative impacts of these
species on the human population, the productive
sectors, the environment and the biodiversity.
Currently, biological
intrusion caused by alien invasive species
is considered the second leading cause of
loss of biodiversity on the planet, second
only to habitat destruction. In Brazil,
the costs of the impacts caused by these
species are approximately $ 50 billion per
year.
The Brazilian government
has been updating lists of endangered Brazilian
species, which serve as a warning and a
tool for monitoring the policy for the conservation
of these species.
+ More
World community adopts
a new UN treaty on living modified organisms
The adoption of the
new treaty concluded six years of negotiations
18/10/2010
A new international treaty, "the Nagoya-Kuala
Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability
and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety", was adopted last week in
Japan at one of the largest intergovernmental
meetings ever held on the safe use of modern
biotechnology.
The adoption of the
new treaty came at the end of the five-day
meeting of the governing body of the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety (known as the Conference
of the Parties serving as the meeting of
the Parties to the Protocol or COP-MOP 5)
and concluded six years of negotiations.
The new supplementary
Protocol provides international rules and
procedure on liability and redress for damage
to biodiversity resulting from living modified
organisms (LMO). Setting the stage for its
adoption, small group of government negotiators
had resolved contentious issues and agreed
on the text of
the supplementary Protocol
just six hours before the opening of the
COP-MOP 5 meeting on Monday. Mr. René
Lefeber of the Netherlands, one Co-Chairs
of the Group of the Friends that negotiated
the text of the new treaty said: "It
has been many years since the last global
environmental agreement was agreed. The
adoption of new supplementary Protocol during
the International Year Biodiversity will
give new impetus to multilateral environmental
negotiations. This agreement will also make
important contribution to the on-going work
under the Convention on Biological Diversity
to protect life on earth."
The new treaty shall
be open for signature at the United Nations
Headquarters in New York from 7 March 2011
to 6 March 2012 and will enter into force
90 days after being ratified by at least
40 Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety.
The historic meeting
of the Parties to the Protocol, held in
the city of Nagoya, in Aichi prefecture,
Japan, adopted seventeen other decisions.
These included adoption of a ten-year Strategic
Plan for the implementation of the Protocol,
a programme of work on public awareness,
education and participation concerning LMOs,
and further guidance on risk assessment
and risk management.
At the closing ceremony
of COP-MOP 5, Ms. Masayo Tanabu, Parliamentary
Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries, speaking on behalf of the
Government of Japan, stated: "The new
supplementary Protocol is a turning point
for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
There have been many challenges successfully
overcome. Let us rekindle the spirit of
cooperation to confront the biodiversity
challenges as well."
Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf,
Executive Secretary of the Convention on
Biological Diversity praised Japan as an
outstanding host and paid tribute to delegates
for the outcomes of the meeting. He said:
"I congratulate all of you on this
remarkable achievement. We have dreamt of
this event for more than six years. This
is indeed a historic event not only for
the biodiversity family but also for the
world community at large."
Source: UNEP
