Brussels, 14/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - Greater cooperation, more means, more research, and more EU responsibility and communication - that is what is recommended by some 400 European decision-makers, NGOs, scientists and other European players interested in protecting Nature's legacy and safeguarding and increasing biodiversity after 2010. These different stakeholders, invited by Belgian Environment Minister and Environment Council President-in-Office Joke Schaulvliege to the international conference in Ghent on “biodiversity in a changed world” (8 and 9 September), set out their expectations of the Nagoya summit.
Their message was set out in a statement for the tenth conference of parties to the convention on biological convention (Nagoya, Japan, in October), where a new strategic plan is to be set in place for the safeguarding and recovery of biodiversity at global level. This “Message from Ghent” recommends: - integrating the biodiversity approach into all policies at every level (international, European and national) and taking into account the impact of biodiversity on economic systems and climate change; - cooperating with all parties concerned, especially the private sector, for countering the decline in biodiversity; - allocating more financial resources to combating biodiversity loss, bearing in mind that the long-term economic cost of biodiversity decline would be far higher than the investment for preserving biodiversity; - improving and consolidating research into loss of biodiversity in order to make good policy choices; - investing more in making the public at large more familiar with the consequences of biodiversity loss; - and entrusting a leading role to the EU for the safeguarding of biodiversity. (A.N./transl.jl)