Ladies and gentlemen,
The future is before
you.
We know that the promises
made at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) in 2002 have not been
fulfilled.
Not one country reporting
to the CBD, as chronicled in the GBO-3,
has met the 2010 target of substantially
reversing the rate of loss of biodiversity.
Among the important
agenda items here in Nagoya is resetting
this ticking clock by setting bolder and
more determined goals.
UNEP supports the draft
Revised Strategic Plan for the CBD and improved
indicators. To this end we have been organizing
and supporting regional workshops from Africa
to West Asia in order for governments to
define the plan's direction.
UNEP's Global Environment
Outlook-5, which is underway and which will
be ready in 2012, has also been tooled to
support the plan.
It will also focus on
not just the realities and trends but the
solutions to biodiversity loss and ecosystem
degradation amongst other central sustainability
challenges.
The plan's success will
ultimately hinge on financial support from
governments.
But crucially on how
policy-makers refocus and redirect the global
economy to factor in the world's natural
and nature-based assets in order to unleash
the markets and the trillions of dollars
in investment funds, pension fund and the
like.
It will also rest on
building the capacity of developing countries.
UNEP is supporting this
across many fronts including under a 13
million Euro project funded by the European
Union on capacity support for MEA implementation.
Last year UNEP also
allocated $4 million to strengthen to support
to MEAs via our network of regional offices.
Focal points have been created covering
regional and national fast tracking of the
chemicals and biodiversity treaties.
Also before you is the
opportunity to finally establish the CBD's
missing pillar which in turn can support
the strategic plan by providing incentives
for conservation and sustainable use and
a new flow of funds from North to South.
I refer of course to
an International Regime on Access and Benefit
Sharing of Genetic Resources (ABS)- a smart
market mechanism in its own right.
UNEP has, as with many
previous negotiations, assisted in facilitating
the latest round kick started after Bonn
and leading to Nagoya.
These have been at turns frustrating and
encouraging.
But in the 18 years
since the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 that
gave birth to the CBD, there has never been
a better chance of agreeing ABS than now.
Let us work together
to overcome the remaining hurdles and look
to the common areas of interest that unite
nations on this issue rather than the smaller
differences that all too often divide.
In a 21st century, where
biological and genetic resources will increasingly
become acknowledged as a major part of economic
and business life and for inventions and
breakthroughs, the notion of not having
basic international ground rules and norms
and standards is likely to prove short-sighted
to put it mildly.
Earlier this year in
Busan, in the Republic of Korea, one breakthrough
occurred in this important, mile-stone year.
Governments gave the
green light for the establishment of an
International Science Policy Platform on
Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES).
Such a body has the
potential to significantly tear down the
firewall and strengthen the interface between
science and policy-making in support of
the biological conventions and the CBD's
strategic plan.
An IPBES has been one
of the missing links in the gulf between
the reality of what is happening to the
natural world and an ambition to fundamentally
change and to fix this.
ABS is another missing
link, another key piece in the response
puzzle.
I understand that real
and tangible progress has been made over
the past few days.
And there is optimism
that a Protocol may be in sight: I congratulate
the co-chairs of the Ad-Hoc Open-Ended Working
Group for their determination, energy and
creativity.
Let this real chance
not slip through our fingers here in Nagoya
- let's have something more to shout about
and to celebrate come the 29th of October
that will make us and the global public
we serve stand up and congratulate all concerned.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Biodiversity and ecosystems
have always been at the heart of UNEP's
work since it was established in 1972.
UNEP has and continues
to work across the full spectrum in support
of the biological conventions from the strategic
to the project level.
Since 1992 to June this
year, UNEP GEF biodiversity projects have
invested close to $350 million in this area
and generated co-financing of over $420
million.
A 10 year, $10 million
UNEP GEF project to save the Siberian crane
across partner countries including China,
India, Kazakhstan and Russia, has not only
boosted the bird's fortunes.
This partnership involving NGOs and the
Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) has
also played a catalytic role in boosting
the conservation and rehabilitation of wetlands
covering some 7 million hectares -ecosystems
of high environmental and economic importance.
A UNEP GEF project on
the often overlooked role of below ground
biodiversity in sustainable agriculture,
and involving Brazil and Cote d'Ivoire to
Kenya, Mexico and Uganda, has just been
completed.
For the full range of
UNEP's activities in support of the biological
conventions, please see our report of activities
to this meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In 2010 biodiversity
and ecosystems have not just become part
of the heart but an aortic and pulmonary
component of the organization.
This is as a result
of beginning the full implementation of
the UNEP Medium-Term Strategy requested
by ministers responsible for the environment
through their Governing Council/Global Ministerial
Environment Forum.
In support of the entire
family of biological conventions - from
CBD and the CMS to the Convention on the
International Trade in Endangered Species
to Ramsar, the wetlands treaty - UNEP has
been bringing not just the science and the
policy.
But now increasingly
the economics to the fore including in support
of the CBD targets.
This body of work also
links and curves back to the other conventions
whether it be chemicals and hazardous waste
or climate or air pollution.
The essential and elemental
thrust is to showcase the multiple, and
to some hidden benefits and opportunities
for action right across the sustainability
agenda if only we look for them and seize
the opportunities.
To recognize too that
far from being a burden, investments in
the environment can have inordinate returns
if the right signals and structures are
factored into sustainable development and
growth.
Last year we compiled
a rapid assessment report: The Environmental
Food Crises: environment's role in averting
future food crises.
Among its many findings
was that over half of the food produced
today is either lost, wasted or discarded
as a result of inefficiency in the human-managed
food chain.
There is evidence within
the report that the world could feed the
entire projected population growth to 2050
by becoming more efficient while also ensuring
the survival of wild animals, birds and
fish on this planet
Food waste doesn't just
translate into the tragedy of billions of
people going hungry every night.
It represents a waste
of the fertilizers and fuels used across
the food chain which contribute to impacts
such as dead zones in the world's oceans
and climate change - also another avenue
for reducing the pressure on land and the
pressures on ecosystems and biodiversity
and indeed the atmosphere.
The Blue Carbon report
produced with the FAO, UNESCO and IUCN,
underlined that seagrasses, mangroves and
salt marshes globally may be absorbing up
to half the world's transport emissions.
We know these marine
ecosystems are economically-important in
terms of coastal defenses, nurseries for
fish and other important services.
Now we know they could
be cornerstones in a more comprehensive
response to climate change with the right
kind of investment including via payment
for ecosystem services.
TEEB and the Green Economy
Indeed it is perhaps
the economic lens that has been one of the
biggest missing links in the international
response to biodiversity loss and ecosystem
degradation.
This week The Economics
of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) -
a partnership hosted by UNEP - will publish
its final, synthesis report.
If deforestation continues
as present rates to 2050, the world will
lose $2 trillion-$4.5 trillion of natural
capital per year
And what would it cost
to replace certain natural services - even
if we could.
Insect pollinators,
including bees, provide services worth an
estimated 153 billion Euros annually representing
close to 10 per cent of the world's agricultural
output for human food
TEEB is also showcasing where some communities
and countries are recognizing nature's value.
In Vietnam, planting
and protecting nearly 12000 hectares of
mangroves has cost just over $1 million
but saved annual expenditure on dyke maintenance
of well over $7 million.
TEEB feeds directly
into UNEP's Green Economy Initiative?indeed
it is no coincidence that the head of both
projects is the same: Pavan Sukhdev who
is on secondment to UNEP from Deutsche Bank.
The Green Economy, which
is one of the two themes for the upcoming
Rio+20 meeting in Brazil, is assembling
from across the globe the smart policy-instruments
and market mechanisms to further unleash
investments.
It is also showcasing
where perhaps the global economy is wasting
money and perversely contributing to environmental
degradation - money that could be better
spent on supporting the agenda of the CBD
and other biological conventions.
In May UNEP spotlighted
the economic, social and environmental contradictions
of fisheries subsidizes and their role in
fueling the depletion of fish stocks.
A Green Economy approach
would invest $8 billion of the estimated
$27 billion-worth of subsidizes in areas
such as Marine Protected Areas and tradable
fish quotas
This could actually
raise catches to 112 million tonnes annually
while triggering benefits to industry, consumers
and the global economy totaling US$1.7 trillion
over the next 40 years
Raise total income of
fishing households, including those engaged
in artisanal fishing, from US$35 billion
to around US$44 billion a year while also
assisting in fighting poverty by securing
a primary source of protein for close to
one billion people
TEEB and the Green Economy
are both bringing evidence to oft said statement
that nature is the wealth of the less well
off.
Between close to 50
per cent and 90 per cent of the GDP of the
poor - effectively the total source of livelihoods
of rural and forest-dwelling poor households
- are provided by ecosystems and other non-marketed
goods
Points being articulated
and translated into the work of the UNEP-UN
Development Programme's Poverty and Environment
Initiative which, as of June this year,
has expanded to just under 20 countries.
Points made in a Green
Economy and MDG briefing launched to coincide
with the Millennium Development Goal review
last month prior to the 65th session of
the UN General Assembly.
Meanwhile the multiple
benefits, mutual supportiveness of the CBD
and the UN Climate Convention and the way
public policy has the potential to shape
investment decisions is no more better illustrated
than under Reduced Emissions from Deforestation
and forest Degradation (REDD).
But where to target
investments in order to combat climate change,
boost biodiversity and enhance ecosystem
services that also contributes to livelihoods?
This week UNEP-World
Conservation Monitoring Centre will showcase
new maps covering countries including Honduras
and Tanzania that do just that: offering
choices and options to balance the risks
and maximize the opportunities of REDD.
Recent field work in the Democratic Republic
of Congo UN-REDD - which is a partnership
between UNEP, UNDP and FAO - have identified
seven locations as likely candidates for
the first REDD projects
UNEP and the World Bank
are pursuing an ecosystems and natural capital
initiative as a result of TEEB and national
assessments are being planned and considered
by several countries including Brazil and
India - again initiatives in support of
the proposed Strategic Plan of the CBD.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Change is underway -
environmental change including the rapid
and accelerating loss of the world's biodiversity
and ecosystems.
It is now being glimpsed
on the bottom line of households, communities,
business and indeed entire economies.
Next week UNEP's Finance
Initiative will host CEOs from banks, investment
funds and other sectors of the finance community
here in Nagoya.
According to a survey
by the World Economic Forum, the "severity
of economic loss' and the "likelihood
that biodiversity has a business impact'
jumped between 2009 and 2010 - and is rated
now as more of an issue of concern to business
than international terrorism - perhaps an
unusual but intriguing juxtaposition.
A recent survey by Pricewaterhouse
Coopers found that nearly 30 per cent of
CEOs are "extremely worried" or
"somewhat concerned" about biodiversity
loss with CEOs in Latin America the most
concerned.
And it is not just business
where concerns are rising.
I hope some of you will
join us next Sunday where we will announce
the winners of this year's global Children
Painting Competition on biodiversity - if
Hansel and Gretel worried you when you were
young, it is the loss of animals and forests
that are animating the new generation.
But in many countries,
communities and cities, business and households
another kind of change is also being registered
and recorded which if scaled-up and embed
offers a far different future than the one
being forecast by science under the paralysis
of the status quo.
This is the challenge
before this meeting.
On ABS, let me agree
that it is complex and challenging.
But all too often multilateral
negotiations seem to reduce to the minutia
of extraordinary and in-depth detail.
It becomes for many
almost impossible to see the wood from the
trees - we see this all too clearly in the
climate negotiations.
To borrow another biodiversity
metaphor: one does not have to have every
single duck in place before setting sail
- a fact that is also seen clearly in the
success of the Montreal Protocol on Substances
that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
Governments got going
on repairing the Earth's protective shield
in the 1980s without waiting for every knot
to be tied and every bow to be neatly attached
to the final package.
And have evolved and
amended that highly successful MEA and Protocol
as new science, information and realities
have emerged.
It is the United Nations
at its best and goes to the principles of
fairness and equity and the search for a
peaceful world that underpinned its original
charter.
Here in Nagoya we need
to rediscover those principles as they relate
to the conservation and sustainable use
of the living world and in a way that shares
the benefits to six billion, rising to nine
billion people by 2050.
Recognize too that stability
and human well-being in the 21st century
will rest fairly and squarely on the fate
of all life on Earth.
Science tells us that
we are currently going through the sixth
wave of extinctions - human beings are not
on the IUCN's RED List, but for how much
longer.
If that is what science
is telling us, what will this meeting tell
the world it is doing about it?
The plants and animals,
fungi and micro-organisms that produce and
clean our air, generate drinking water,
hydro-power and irrigation; provide food,
shelter and medicines and also bring to
many joy and a spiritual dimension to our
daily lives need a big helping hand from
this 10th Meeting of the Conference of the
Parties - if not for their sakes, but for
ours.
As the world famous
biologist and insect specialist E O Wilson
underlined:" The one process now going
on that will take millions of years to correct
is the loss of genetic and species diversity
by the destruction of natural habitats-this
is the folly our descendants are least likely
to forgive us".
Here in Nagoya the world
can start putting in place the solutions
and systems that will give those alive today
and our descendants to come less cause for
anxiety but one of well deserved approbation
and applause as a result of your decisions
in Nagoya in 2010.
I would like to thank
the German presidency which has so ably
navigated from Bonn to Nagoya; members of
the bureau for their wisdom and energy and
again the Government of Japan to whom the
presidential baton is to be handed.
I am pleased to know
that a global Satoyama Initiative will be
launched here - proof, if proof were needed
that sometimes we must go back to the future
to re-define a better one - that traditional
knowledge as well as modern science has
the answers.
I am sure that under
Japan's leadership, the decisions taken
here over the next two weeks can be translated
from ideas into solid and importantly, supported
actions.
And that the spirit
and practical application of systems like
Satoyama can become one of the beacons for
sustaining humanity together with all life
on Earth in the 21st century.
Thank you.
