[TimeStar] Extinctions Continue Despite Earth Summit Goals, U.N. Officials Say

[timestar at timestar.org]

BILL HAMILTON WROTE:

Extinctions Continue Despite Earth Summit Goals, U.N. Officials Say

By SEAN YOONG
Published on 2/10/2004

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Tens of thousands of animals and plants are being
driven to extinction as countries fail to meet conservation targets set
more than a decade ago, U.N. officials said Monday at a major conference on
biodiversity.

Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said
human activities such as logging and overfishing are rapidly sending animal
and plant species to oblivion.

Many countries have failed to meet to commitments under the U.N.'s
Convention on Biological Diversity, signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil.

"We have to do more, not simply pay lip service," Toepfer told reporters in
comments marking the start of the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity.

More than 2,000 government officials, scientists and environmentalists are
attending the conference, which runs for nearly two weeks. Delegates hope
to refocus attention on environmental issues at a time when security and
trade dominate the international agenda.

They are also exploring the creation of an international framework to help
developing nations and indigenous people share in the benefits of
commercial use of their natural resources.

At least 60,000 species worldwide currently become extinct each year,
Toepfer said, mainly because of the "global development agenda" set by
wealthy, industrialized nations, which consume most of the earth's natural
resources.

Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki said many countries emphasize
industrialization and economic progress above environmental conservation,
threatening "a major global ecological crisis."

"If China, Brazil, India and Indonesia all destroy their ecosystems and
natural habitats like developed nations have done, how can nature keep
supplying the resources that human beings need?" Suzuki told reporters.

Reports released at the conference Monday included a U.N. study on
agricultural expansion, mining, logging and other activities threatening
mountain forests, which are home to numerous endangered species and a water
source for millions of people in Asia, South America and Africa.

Deforestation, climate changes and poaching are hurting populations of
plants and animals in mountain regions, including the spectacled bear in
the Andes, the great apes of Africa, fruit-eating birds in Colombia and
butterflies in northern Vietnam, the U.N. report said.

The United States has yet to ratify the treaty while other countries have
done little to implement safe habitat proposals for endangered species.

In Brussels, Belgium, EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom urged
the conference to agree on a "global network of protected areas" to halt
the species loss.

The EU released figures showing 52 percent of freshwater fish, 42 percent
of mammals and 15 percent of birds are threatened across the European
continent.




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