Brussels, 09/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - The seventh international conference on global biodiversity (COP 7) opened on Monday in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). It will bring together representatives of the 188 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Biodiversity until 20 February. The convention was signed in Rio in 1992 at the Earth Summit. The aim of the conference is to adopt measures for reaching the target fixed by the parties to significantly reduce global biodiversity loss in the run up to 2010.
Margot Wallström, Environment Commissioner who will represent the European Commission for the ministerial part of the conference (18-19 February), stressed on Monday in Brussels how urgent it is to take action. She reminded reporters of the call for international action that she had launched at the pan-European conference on global biodiversity (see EUROPE of 17 January, p.11). Recalling that the commitment taken by the EU is still more ambitious as it aims to put an end to the trend toward biodiversity decline as 2010 draws near, the Commissioner said: "We only have six years to go until 2010, the year by which world leaders have committed themselves to significantly reduce biodiversity loss. (…) We cannot afford to fail". She cites alarming data. According to some experts, the rate at which species are becoming extinct is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural rate would be. African and Asian lions, orang-utans, tigers, and Chinese alligators are in danger, as is European mink, the Arctic fox, various types of squirrels and lizards, and all European dolphins, seals and whales. Over the European continent as a whole, 42% of mammals are facing the risk of extinction, 15% of birds, 45% butterflies, 30% amphibians, 45% reptiles and 52% freshwater fish. "It is not a question of knowing whether there was once life on Mars but whether life will continue on Earth. Biodiversity is not a luxury, it is a condition that is essential for life. Humanity does not have the right to exterminate species or habitats. In Kuala Lumpur, we shall be calling for the establishment of a global network of protected areas by 2010 on land and 2010 for marine areas, and for strengthened implementation of the Convention's strategy plan, mainly in cooperation with the developing countries, as that is where most global biodiversity is concentrated and which will be the first to be injured from the disappearance of the ecosystems", the Commissioner added.
The role of protected areas and of technology transfer, the rights of indigenous peoples and of local communities will also be on the agenda. In Kuala Lumpur, the international community should decide whether or not it is appropriate to launch negotiations on a binding international system to govern access to genetic resources and to traditional know-how associated to such resources, as well as on the fair and equitable distribution of the advantages resulting from their use. This would mean that companies and research institutes having access to plant and animal genetic resources in certain countries would on the other hand be under an obligation to share (with the owners or providers of genetic material) the financial and scientific advantages resulting from the use of such material. Some parties to the Convention, mainly a group of developing countries whose biological diversity is very rich, are calling for a new international instrument.
On this point, the Commission is urging in favour of implementing guidelines adopted in 2002 by the parties to the Convention (the so-called Bonn guidelines). Its communication of 23 December 2003 on sharing the advantages afforded by the use of genetic resources of exotic plants with their countries of origin pursues this objective (see EUROPE of 10 January, p.12). The Commission, however, is said to be willing to envisage other measures where necessary to make up for failings observed in the current provision with a view to experience acquired in application of guidelines.
On the other hand, environmental NGOs under Friends of the Earth International express concern about the eventuality of such rules which, they say, run counter to the aims of the Convention. "New rules based on the commodification of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge would be unacceptable because they would facilitate biopiracy instead of halting it. This would make the CBD (Convention on Biodiversity) lose its credibility", Simone Lovera warns in a press release. Considering that deforestation and the extracting industries are the two main causes of the loss of biological and cultural diversity, Friends of the Earth International calls upon the parties to the Convention to ban large-scale commercial logging in tropical forests; ban mining, at least in the world's protected areas, ensure explicit safeguards for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in the proposed workplan on protected areas, and "not to start negotiations on biopiracy rules (regime) that allow patents on life and commodification of biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge".