As a quick follow up to yesterday's post on the COP 10 biodiversity conference, there is some good news to report as the meeting in Nagoya, Japan of nearly 190 nations comes to a close.
The representatives have signed what is being called the Nagoya Protocol which is a strategic plan that addresses both specific biodiversity conservation goals (increasing to 17% protection of the land and inland waters and 10% for coastal and marine waters by 2020 - up from 13% and a paltry 1%, respectively) and a broader demand for each nation to look at how it can improve on diminishing the threat of overfishing, invasive species, and the general destruction of natural resources.
"This is a day to celebrate in terms of a new and innovative response to the alarming loss of biodiversity and ecosystems. And a day to celebrate in terms of opportunities for lives and livelihoods in terms of overcoming poverty and delivering sustainable development...This meeting has delivered a sea change in the global understanding of the mulit-trillion dollar importance of biodiversity of forests, wetlands and other ecosystems," declared Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environmental Programme.
While participating nations seem to be on board, the major challenge lurking in the wings is cost. Funding for the required implementation of the protocol was not determined during the two-week conference, preferring to leave to the devices of each nation. But Japan, recognized by some conservation factions as a conservation spoiler and major participant in overfishing, promised $2 billion towards biodiversity. Other cash-strapped nations may have to consider the alternative economic perils derived by not funding: collapsed fisheries, reduced tourism, greater food imports, and even population malnutrition.
While the Nagoya Protocol did not deliver everything that conservation groups had asked for (Conservation International, as an example, was pushing for higher percentage goals), it was, however, a game-changer compared to the results from previous international meetings.
A reason for cautious celebration with a strong dose of let's wait and see just what comes to pass.
Read the COP10 press release. Read TIME writer Bryan Walsh's article on the Nagoya Protocol.
The comprehensive study, combining the efforts of 174 authors, 115 academic and research institutions from 38 countries, worked with data covering 25,000 different species from the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. The results show that human expansion, logging, and over-hunting are moving 50 species of mammals, birds, and amphibians, on average, closer to extinction each year. According to renown Harvard University Professor Edward Wilson, "The 'backbone' of biodiversity is being eroded."
But a unique feature of the study - and one that should catch the attention of the COP 10 policy- and decision-makers - is that the study also analyzed and confirmed the positive effects of conservation, that the efforts of nation's to protect worldwide biodiversity can have a demonstrable effect. The study's results show that without the current level of conservation that has taken place, biodiversity would have declined by another 20 percent.
"History has shown us that conservation can achieve the impossible, as anyone who knows the story of the White Rhinoceros in southern Africa knows," Dr Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN's Species Survival Commission and an author on the study was quoted in Science Daily."But this is the first time we can demonstrate the aggregated positive impact of these successes on the state of the environment."
This is a much better start to this conference than the COP 15 climate conference in 2009 or the CITES conference in March of this year, where political and economic lobbying ran roughshod over important conservation and environmental initiatives. For COP 10, this is a good step forward and the nations involved appear to be on board with the study's findings. Now the question is, what will be the final results of the conference in terms of policy and commitment? Lip service or definitive, lasting action? Read more about the COP10 study in Science Daily.
As a quick follow up to yesterday's post on the COP 10 biodiversity conference, there is some good news to report as the meeting in Nagoya, Japan of nearly 190 nations comes to a close.
The representatives have signed what is being called the Nagoya Protocol which is a strategic plan that addresses both specific biodiversity conservation goals (increasing to 17% protection of the land and inland waters and 10% for coastal and marine waters by 2020 - up from 13% and a paltry 1%, respectively) and a broader demand for each nation to look at how it can improve on diminishing the threat of overfishing, invasive species, and the general destruction of natural resources.
