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Divisions cloud Biodiversity talks
The accelerating destruction of natural habitats will take millions of years to recover from, scientists have warned. This may be the last chance to apply the brakes, Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, reminded delegates representing the 193 member countries of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
"This meeting is being held to address a very simple fact: we are destroying life on this Earth," Steiner said at the opening plenary meeting on Monday. "It is absolutely essential that nations work together here."
Ryu Matsumoto, Japan's environment minister, warned that the world was about to reach a threshold where the loss of biodiversity would become irreversible.
"We're now close to a tipping point on biodiversity," he said. "We may cross that in the next 10 years."
With 16,000 participants, the October 18-29 gathering is by far the biggest international meeting on biodiversity. The term biodiversity refers to the variety of plants, animals and other species that provide a wide range of services to humanity.
Insect pollinators, including bees, provide services worth an estimated $211bn annually, representing close to 10 per cent of the world's agricultural output for human food. A new estimate puts the cost of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems to the human race at $2 trillion to $5 trillion a year.
Despite the trillions of dollars of natural services at risk, countries failed to meet their 2010 target of substantially reversing the rate of loss of species. "Let us have the courage to look in the eyes of our children and admit that we have failed, individually and collectively," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the CBD.