Must do better: A blue lion fish. The marine realm has been disproportionately hit by biodiversity losses, but a new protected area is aimed at deep sea species.
Credit: iStockphoto
Another hotly contested issue – how to describe the link between climate change and biodiversity – ended with a vague statement which said efforts to reduce and adapt to global warming should avoid potentially negative impacts on biodiversity. Scientists say that species are becoming extinct at a dizzying rate – between 100 and 1,000 times the natural pace of extinction. One in four mammals, one bird in eight, one third of all amphibians and 70 per cent of plants are under threat (see, Wildlife numbers plummet globally, Cosmos Online).
The dollar value of natural resources
The Biodiversity Convention is an offspring of the 1992 Earth Summit, but it has long played the frustrating role of junior partner to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Rio's other landmark treaty. The Bonn meeting was framed as an attempt to catapult Earth's other environmental crisis to greater prominence.
In attempt to show the dollar value of natural resources, development economist Pavan Sukhdev estimated that the lost benefits of biodiversity and ecosystems cost as much as 3.1 trillion dollars a year, or six percent of the planet's gross national product.
Another initiative at the conference was to set up an independent panel of scientists to deliver regular assessments on the state biodiversity, modelled on the lines of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 500 million euros (US$785 million) in funding for biodiversity work before 2013, and an equal amount annually thereafter. But other major economies are yet to follow suit.
