Brussels, 08/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - With a new conference of the parties to the United Nations Convention on biological diversity opening in India (Hyderabad, 8-19 October), the WWF is calling on the European Union to convince all parties to make progress in the implementation of the strategic plan adopted in Nagoya two years ago and to subscribe to the objectives agreed (the Aichi objectives) to prevent the continuing extinction of species and the decline of natural heritage among the most valuable in the world. The WWF also pleads for the future budget of the EU to reflect this ambition.
“With its strategy for biodiversity 2020, the EU has promised to speed up its contribution to halt the loss of global biodiversity and this conference will give it the opportunity to show how it intends to do so. Europe is in a unique position to encourage other countries to adopt the Aichi objectives and to guarantee that these become a legally binding global agreement”, said Sally Nicholson, director of the European office of the WWF.
As negotiations on the draft budget 2014-2020 are getting into the nitty-gritty, the WWF points out that the Parliament and the Council have a golden opportunity to show that the EU takes nature preservation seriously. “Nature must be protected in vital areas such as the common agriculture policy and cohesion. Without firm guarantees, the rest of the world may point the finger at us for this lack of determination”, the World Wildlife Fund warns. (AN/transl.fl)