A two-week conference aimed at ensuring the survival of global biodiversity in the face of climate change and pollution got under way in Germany yesterday.
The protection of flora, fauna and even food sources will be on the agenda of the 191 governments attending the ninth conference of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn.
Officials will also review the goals set in 2002 at the UN.
Earth Summit, which called for slowing the loss of biological diversity by 2010 — a target that critics contend is far out of reach given a growing human population, rising levels of pollution and climate change.
Organizers also hope the conference will help find new ways to ease the rapid rise in food costs, which has sparked violent protests in Haiti and Egypt. There is also concern that unrest could take place elsewhere amid profiteering and hoarding.
Food prices have been driven to record highs recently by a variety of factors, including a spike in the cost of petroleum products, including those used in fertilizers and processing.
There has also been an increase in the price of grain, which is used to produce biofuels and given as food to livestock to satisfy a growing demand for meat in developing countries. The price of rice has more than tripled since January.
“Renewing agricultural diversity of crops and livestock backed by a functional natural support system is the international community’s best long-term solution to meet the global food challenge,” Ahmed Djoghlaf, the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said before the conference.
He said that while the meeting would focus on a number of issues, including global deforestation and slumping wildlife populations, the fact that prices for wheat, corn and rice are at record highs while food stocks are at historic lows provides a dismal backdrop.
“Agriculture is considered a prime example of how human activities profoundly impact the ecological functioning of the planet,” Djoghlaf said in a statement. “During the past 50 years, humans have altered ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other period in human history. Indeed, more land was converted to cropland during the last 50 years than in the previous two centuries.”
The financial losses of distinct land and species has been projected to be approximately 2 trillion euros (US$3.1 trillion), or about 6 percent of the entire world’s GNP, German weekly Der Spiegel reported yesterday.
Among strategies to crimp those losses is to refocus on reforestation worldwide. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to increase her country’s funding to augment those efforts.
German Environmental Minister Sigmar Gabriel told lawmakers earlier this month that the loss of biodiversity signaled a severe economic threat that was on par with climate change.
He said that “effective measures” had to emerge from the Bonn meeting if real progress was to be made.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including