More than 170 countries got down here today to begin a 12-day discussion on how to stem the loss of natural resources and increasing funding for global conservation of biodiversity.
The 11th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention of Biological Diversity began with the warning that efforts to reverse the loss of Earth’s biodiversity in the next ten years might well alter the relationship between human and nature.
Setting the tone for the discussions, Jayanthi Natarajan, Union Minister for Environment and Forest, who took over as the president of CoP 11 from her Japanese counterpart, said “this is the time of reckoning for us.
"If we miss this one chance, it would be our collective failure to achieve the biodiversity targets by 2020.”
She warned that assuming that “we can continue to survive and flourish with business as usual approach would be a grave error, which we may not even life to regret.”
Resource mobilisation
The Minister stressed that the conference should set targets on resource mobilisation, failing which the targets would be severely impacted.
“The present global economic crisis should not deter us, she said, adding that expenditure on this should be looked at as an investment for the future,” she said.
Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary to the UN CBD, said the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets would be central to “our actions in this decade”.
An effective and continuous monitoring system for the targets should also be put in place.
Targets
The targets include reducing the rate of loss of natural habitats by half and bring at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water and 10 per cent of marine areas under protected areas. While 20 per cent of vertebrate species are under threat, more than 30 per cent of Earth’s land surface used for agricultural production has been shrinking by more than 20 per cent since the 1980s.