A treaty had been made in 2002 with aims to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 and all countries had failed in these targets. 2010 had been planned then to be the International year of Biodiversity.
In December 2009 there had been a similar international meeting at Copenhagen to make a treaty about Climate change but no agreement had been reached, which was disappointing. There had been lots of media publicity about this.
There has been disappointingly little media publicity about the Nagoya Convention.
CEL made posters and invited churches to display them.
Now people are asking what were the results of the conference?
Well there was an agreements and there are results!!
There was a lot of brinkmanship - not agreement had been reached by 28th. The last day on the 29th the meeting was extended into the early hours of the 30th.
The sticking point had been the third aim of the process:- The Nagoya Protocol on genetic resources. This has taken nearly 20 years to agree and sets rules governing how nations manage and share benefits derived from forests and seas to create new drugs, crops or cosmetics.
Once that was agreed then the other decisions could be agreed too.
In the Strategic Plan there are 20 targets arranged under 5 goals and 3 0bjectives:
Objectives:-
- Conservation of biodiversity itself
- Sustainable use of the components of that biodiversity
- The fair and equitable sharing of benefits from using genetic resources (So if a plant is discovered that is a good medicine the pahrmacutical company would have to share the profits with the country and the local people where the plant came from.
Some of the targets:
Most interesting:) By 2020 at the latest, people should be aware of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve it and use it sustainably - that's a huge educational programme that is going to have to be done - It's about making sure governments are aware and the people that elect them about the value of biodiversity.
I am hapy they have come to some agreements at Nagoya. It is a beginning. We will have to see how the countries implement the decisions they have made.
The most understandable comments were from the BBC radio programme "Saving Species"
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/nathistory/nathistory_20101102-1644a.mp3 - if you download this fast forward to 4/5 of the way through the programme to 23 minutes
Three objectives:
- Conservation of biodiversity itself
- Sustainable use of the components of that biodiversity
- The fair and equitable sharing of benefits from using genetic resources (So if a plant is discovered that is a good medicine the pharmaceutical company would have to share the profits with the country where the plant came from.
the whole of the rest of the agreements depended on number 3 being agreeed.
5 goals
20 Targets within those goals
The most interesting target 1. By 2020 at the latest - people are aware of biodiversity and how they can use it sustainably.
Target 3: Incentives including subsidies harmful to biodiversity should be illuminated, phased out, or reformed (Amazing - it includes subsidies on fisheries, subisidies to forestry, to biofuels - politaically it is a hot potatoe )
Number 5. By 2020 the rate of loss of all natural habitats will be significantly reduced.
17% of land habitats and 10% of marine habitats should be protected . (The conservation agencies wanted these figures to be much bigger - we already have 12% of terrestrial and well, only 1% of coastal/marine habitats. e.g. Greenpeace is campaigning for 40% of the world's oceans to be protected). But these figures are a start.
reuters:
Delegates agreed to a 20-point strategic plan to protect fish stocks, fight the loss and degradation of natural habitats and to conserve larger land and marine areas.
They also set a broader 2020 "mission" to take urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity.
Nations agreed to protect 17 percent of land and inland waters and 10 percent of coastal and marine areas by 2020. Currently, 13 percent of land and 1 percent of oceans are protected for conservation.
The third part of the deal, the Nagoya Protocol on genetic resources, has taken nearly 20 years to agree and sets rules governing how nations manage and share benefits derived from forests and seas to create new drugs, crops or cosmetics.
http://boingboing.net/2010/11/03/the-nagoya-protocol.html
to at least halve and where feasible bring close to zero the rate of loss of natural habitats including forests (by 2020) -
good list of references
http://www.scq.ubc.ca/dnghub/?p=450 humerous article trying to explain all the terms - worth reading.
http://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2010/pr-2010-10-29-cop-10-en.pdf for use by the media
http://boingboing.net/2010/11/03/the-nagoya-protocol.html
to at least halve and where feasible bring close to zero the rate of loss of natural habitats including forests (by 2020) -
good list of references
http://www.scq.ubc.ca/dnghub/?p=450 humerous article trying to explain all the terms - worth reading.
http://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2010/pr-2010-10-29-cop-10-en.pdf for use by the media
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11655925
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/29/nagoya-biodiversity-summit-deal :-
Some key goals have been set, including a plan to expand nature reserves to 17% of the world's land and 10% of the planet's waters.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6169314,00.html :-
The eventual success of the summit came down to three pieces of legislation: a strategic plan for reversing the decline of the world's species by 2020; the finance for that plan; and what proved the thorniest problem of all – a deal to prevent the misappropriation of genetic resources.
The ABS protocol, now renamed the Nagoya Protocol, was not the only qualified success of the night. The strategic plan for 2011-2020 set out goals for the preservation and protection of nature, even though many of the goals from the previous plan were not met.
The new plan contains both new targets, like stopping the extinction of known endangered species by 2020, and old, unfulfilled promises, like such as the aim of designating 10 percent of all oceans as protected areas.
Delegates also agreed on a plan to set up an international body to provide governments with better information for making decisions that can impact on the environment.
The body is to be called the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and will serve a similar function to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It only awaits approval by the United Nations General Assembly.
I put our posters up on the Church Hall Wall - and also put up posters about Crayfish
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