NO PROSPERITY, SECURITY WITHOUT BIODIVERSITY
IUCN at the 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Gland, Switzerland (IUCN) – The world’s prosperity can only be ensured if its biodiversity is conserved and used sustainably. This is the strong message that IUCN – The World Conservation Union is bringing to the 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP7) opening next Monday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“IUCN places great value on the decisions made by the CBD COP, because the Convention represents a unique forum for sustainable strategies designed to preserve our ecosystems, alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life on Earth,” says Mrs Martha Chouchena-Rojas, Head of the IUCN Delegation at the COP7.
IUCN will be present throughout the conference and will use its global experience in field projects and policy formulation to advise governments and non-governmental organizations on the key issues under debate. The priority issues for CBD COP7 include protected areas; mountain biodiversity; follow up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD); and technology transfer and cooperation. Other important issues include the review of programmes of work on inland waters and marine/coastal ecosystems, the WSSD mandate to negotiate an international regime on access and benefit sharing (ABS), and the adoption of principles on sustainable use.
COUNTING DOWN TO 2010
As the discussions in Kuala Lumpur will focus on the 2010 target to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level, adopted by the previous CBD COP and WSSD, IUCN will also be supporting the work on the COP7 in developing an ambitious and decisive action agenda leading up to 2010, including the necessary enabling activities, that would allow all Parties to live up to this commitment.
IUCN is a knowledge provider across a whole range of the proposed goals and targets. Through its Species Survival Commission (SSC), IUCN has developed the Red List of Threatened Species and is working on developing indicators from it to address the status of threatened species, as well as a Species Information Service, that should contribute to measuring progress in achieving the 2010 target. Its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) has developed and is currently refining an international framework of Protected Areas Management Categories that has been used by governments to report on the preparation of the United Nations List of Protected Areas since 1997.
IUCN will also present its novel Countdown 2010 initiative, which aims to promote highly focused action on a number of themes that are critical to the success of the 2010 targets. Given the current rapid decline in biodiversity worldwide, and the ever-increasing extent and intensity of human activities, the 2010 target will require unprecedented efforts in adapting our activities to the needs of natural systems to ensure sustainable livelihoods. These include transformations in sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport, tourism and land-use planning, but also ways of dealing successfully with conservation issues such as establishing effective systems of protected areas, landscape protection, combating invasive alien species, developing practicable biodiversity indicators, realising community-based conservation and securing the full integration of biodiversity objectives into other sectors, including financial institutions and trade, development and aid policies.
Working with its members and partners, IUCN stands ready to lead the Countdown 2010 initiative that will secure commitments from stakeholders to take specific and timely actions that can resolve the crucial issues in the coming years.
More information on the Countdown 2010 initiative is available from: http://iucn.org/info_and_news/press/2010proposal.pdf
COMMITTING TO A PROGRAMME OF REALISTIC AND EFFECTIVE ACTION FOR PROTECTED AREAS
The COP7 is of particular importance for IUCN, as the meeting comes on the heels of the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2003. The Congress not only provided the latest situation analysis for the world’s protected areas but also delivered a specific Message to the CBD and a series of recommendations aimed at the COP7.
The Congress celebrated the expansion of protected areas to cover 11.5% of the Earth’s land surface, but noted that there remain serious gaps in coverage of many important species and biomes – for instance, less than 1% of the marine environment is within protected areas and freshwater ecosystems remain under-represented in existing protected areas systems. Management of many existing protected areas remains ineffective. Protected areas are challenged by underlying and accelerating forces and threats including habitat loss, fragmentation, unsustainable exploitation, invasive species, lack of capacity, inappropriate policies and incentives, and inequitable distribution of costs and benefits.
The WPC Message to the CBD is being made available to delegates. IUCN is bringing specific recommendations on the programme of work to be discussed by the COP7, in which IUCN urges the adoption of a strong and effective CBD programme of work on protected areas as a critical strategy to achieve the 2010 target. This programme of work needs to address the gaps in the existing protected areas systems, especially in providing habitat for critically endangered species and ensuring better coverage of freshwater and marine ecosystems. It also needs to include mechanisms to ensure the necessary participation and equitable sharing of benefits of protected areas, particularly with indigenous and local communities. Achieving an effectively managed system of protected areas requires that the necessary enabling conditions are put in place, including appropriate institutional and human capacity, assessment mechanisms and, most important, the financial support to make this happen.
IUCN is organizing a number of side events on protected areas and marine issues, including:
Tuesday, 10 February 2004, 13:15 - 14:45 Pahang (CEE)
Biodiversity in the Deep Sea: the Biodiversity of Seamounts and Cold Water Coral Communities
Friday, 13 February 2004, 13:15 - 14:45 Tun Dr. Ismail Hall A
The 2003 World Parks Congress and the WCPA Protected Areas Learning Network (PALNet): Implications for the CBD
Thursday, 19 February 2004 13:15 - 14:45 Tun Dr. Ismail Hall A
Natural World Heritage: a Key Tool for Biodiversity Conservation / Management Effectiveness: Saving what we've got
ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING
COP7 also offers a tremendous opportunity to make the necessary progress in addressing the third objective of the CBD. An important output of WSSD was the inclusion in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the need for an international regime to “promote and safeguard fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources”, which was endorsed by the CBD meeting on the Multi-Year Programme of Work. IUCN considers that the COP7 decision on the scope, reach and nature of this regime should ensure that its implementation contributes to poverty alleviation and sustainable development, enhances existing rights and regulations for source countries as well as for indigenous and local communities, and establishes clear and fair provisions for both users and providers of the genetic resources.
Wednesday, 11 February 2004 18:30 – 20:00 Kelantan
Legal and Practical Issues in Development, Negotiation and Implementation of the Access and Benefit Sharing Regime
Wednesday, 18 February 2004 13:15 - 14:45 Pulau Pinang
The International Regime on Access and Benefit Sharing: Regional Perspectives and Negotiation Options
MOUNTAIN ECOSYSTEMS
More than half the world's population relies on mountain water to grow food, produce electricity, sustain industries and, most importantly, to drink. Careful management of mountain ecosystems and the water resources they support has never been more important to our long-term security and survival. IUCN will be urging countries to consider the essential role of mountains for water availability and the need to take an integrated approach to their management.
Cloud forests are perhaps best known as the habitat of the mountain gorillas in Africa, but they are also a vital and threatened part of the mountain environment of over 60 countries, including many tropical islands. Cloud forests are a rare ecosystem, covering a total area of 380,000 sq km, or an area the size of Japan, and have not received sufficient attention for their exceptional concentrations of biodiversity and as sources of freshwater.
Cloud Forest Agenda is a product of the Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative, which is a partnership between UNEP and its World Conservation Monitoring Centre, UNESCO and its Man and the Biosphere Programme and International Hydrological Programme, and IUCN and its Commission on Ecosystem Management. In Kuala Lumpur, these three organizations will present a new report which aims to stimulate new initiatives and partnerships for the conservation and restoration of cloud forests around the world.
Monday 9 February 2004 13:15 - 14:45 Melaka Room
UNEP World Conservation Centre, IUCN and UNESCO launch the Cloud Forests Agenda for Action
For more information contact: Xenya Cherny, IUCN Communications;
E-mail: xenya.cherny@iucn.org .
IUCN recommendations for the COP7 are available at:
http://www.iucn.org/themes/pbia/documents/positionpapers/cop7.htm
The World Conservation Union http://www.iucn.org
Please also see:
Convention on Biological Diversity http://www.biodiv.org
Linkages http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/cop7/
At-Risk Wildlife 'Must Be Saved Now'
http://www.rense.com/general49/nesaved.htm
OPENING OF THE SEVENTH MEETING OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES
TO THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY (COP-7)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - On Monday February 9 2004, over 2,000 delegates from around the world, including cabinet ministers, world-renowned scientists and broad representation from NGOs and community organizations, will gather in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-7).
Priority issues will include the biological diversity of mountain ecosystems, the role of protected areas in the conservation of biological diversity and providing benefits to people, the transfer of technology and technology cooperation, as well as implementation of the target set at the sixth meeting of the Parties to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss of biodiversity at the global, regional and national level. The COP is also expected to follow up on the call for action issued at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development to negotiate an international regime on access and benefit sharing, to help developing countries and indigenous peoples share in the wealth created by their native plants and organisms.
“The survival of the human species depends on biological diversity. Without biodiversity, there would be no trees to produce oxygen, no water catchments and no biodegradation, so that organic waste would just accumulate,” says Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “The services provided by biodiversity are inestimable and yet, because they are free, they are often overlooked, to the point where biodiversity is still being lost at an alarming rate.“
COP-7 Opening Day Program
The Opening Plenary session will start at 10AM (local time) and will be presided, until the election of his successor, by Hans Hoogeveen, President of the COP-6 Bureau.
Mr. Zedan and Dr. Klaus Toepfer, Executive-Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), will make opening statements, following which the Parties will proceed with the election of the officers of the Conference, when it is widely expected that the Honourable Dato’ Seri Law Hieng Ding, Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, will be elected President of COP-7.
Two world-renowned keynote speakers will address the participants on opening day . Award-winning Canadian scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster, Dr. David Suzuki, Chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, will present the keynote speech during the morning session of the Opening Plenary, on “The Challenge of the 21st Century - Setting the Real Bottom line”. In the afternoon session, Dr. Emile Frison, Director General of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, will recall the theme of International Biodiversity Day 2004 with his address “Biodiversity, nutrition and health: making a difference to hunger and conservation in the developing world”.
Journalists should note that a press conference will be held at 13:15 (local time) following the Opening Plenary Session in the press auditorium on the 4th floor of the Putra World Trade Centre. UNEP Executive-Director Toepfer and Executive Secretary Zedan will join with Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Dato’ Seri Law Hieng Ding, to review the meeting’s key issues and objectives in the context of the work that has been accomplished over the two years since the sixth meeting of the COP.
About the Convention on Biological Diversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity is one of the key agreements adopted at the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. It has been ratified by 187 countries and the European Community who, together, constitute the Conference of the Parties. The Convention is unique among the legal frameworks arrived at in Rio because it seeks a comprehensive approach to sustainable development through three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.
The Conference of the Parties is the governing body of the Convention. It is a comprehensive forum for debate and action on sustainable strategies designed to preserve our ecosystems and improve human quality of life.
Visit COP-7 at: http://www.biodiv.org .
CONTACT:
In Kuala Lumpur
Nick Nuttall
Head of Media Services,
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
E-Mail: Nick.Nuttall@unep.org
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Montreal)
Diana Nicholson
Information Officer ad interim
E-mail: diana.nicholson@biodiv.org
United Nations Environment Programme http://www.unep.org
IUCN at the 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Gland, Switzerland (IUCN) – The world’s prosperity can only be ensured if its biodiversity is conserved and used sustainably. This is the strong message that IUCN – The World Conservation Union is bringing to the 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP7) opening next Monday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“IUCN places great value on the decisions made by the CBD COP, because the Convention represents a unique forum for sustainable strategies designed to preserve our ecosystems, alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life on Earth,” says Mrs Martha Chouchena-Rojas, Head of the IUCN Delegation at the COP7.
IUCN will be present throughout the conference and will use its global experience in field projects and policy formulation to advise governments and non-governmental organizations on the key issues under debate. The priority issues for CBD COP7 include protected areas; mountain biodiversity; follow up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD); and technology transfer and cooperation. Other important issues include the review of programmes of work on inland waters and marine/coastal ecosystems, the WSSD mandate to negotiate an international regime on access and benefit sharing (ABS), and the adoption of principles on sustainable use.
COUNTING DOWN TO 2010
As the discussions in Kuala Lumpur will focus on the 2010 target to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level, adopted by the previous CBD COP and WSSD, IUCN will also be supporting the work on the COP7 in developing an ambitious and decisive action agenda leading up to 2010, including the necessary enabling activities, that would allow all Parties to live up to this commitment.
IUCN is a knowledge provider across a whole range of the proposed goals and targets. Through its Species Survival Commission (SSC), IUCN has developed the Red List of Threatened Species and is working on developing indicators from it to address the status of threatened species, as well as a Species Information Service, that should contribute to measuring progress in achieving the 2010 target. Its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) has developed and is currently refining an international framework of Protected Areas Management Categories that has been used by governments to report on the preparation of the United Nations List of Protected Areas since 1997.
IUCN will also present its novel Countdown 2010 initiative, which aims to promote highly focused action on a number of themes that are critical to the success of the 2010 targets. Given the current rapid decline in biodiversity worldwide, and the ever-increasing extent and intensity of human activities, the 2010 target will require unprecedented efforts in adapting our activities to the needs of natural systems to ensure sustainable livelihoods. These include transformations in sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport, tourism and land-use planning, but also ways of dealing successfully with conservation issues such as establishing effective systems of protected areas, landscape protection, combating invasive alien species, developing practicable biodiversity indicators, realising community-based conservation and securing the full integration of biodiversity objectives into other sectors, including financial institutions and trade, development and aid policies.
Working with its members and partners, IUCN stands ready to lead the Countdown 2010 initiative that will secure commitments from stakeholders to take specific and timely actions that can resolve the crucial issues in the coming years.
More information on the Countdown 2010 initiative is available from: http://iucn.org/info_and_news/press/2010proposal.pdf
COMMITTING TO A PROGRAMME OF REALISTIC AND EFFECTIVE ACTION FOR PROTECTED AREAS
The COP7 is of particular importance for IUCN, as the meeting comes on the heels of the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2003. The Congress not only provided the latest situation analysis for the world’s protected areas but also delivered a specific Message to the CBD and a series of recommendations aimed at the COP7.
The Congress celebrated the expansion of protected areas to cover 11.5% of the Earth’s land surface, but noted that there remain serious gaps in coverage of many important species and biomes – for instance, less than 1% of the marine environment is within protected areas and freshwater ecosystems remain under-represented in existing protected areas systems. Management of many existing protected areas remains ineffective. Protected areas are challenged by underlying and accelerating forces and threats including habitat loss, fragmentation, unsustainable exploitation, invasive species, lack of capacity, inappropriate policies and incentives, and inequitable distribution of costs and benefits.
The WPC Message to the CBD is being made available to delegates. IUCN is bringing specific recommendations on the programme of work to be discussed by the COP7, in which IUCN urges the adoption of a strong and effective CBD programme of work on protected areas as a critical strategy to achieve the 2010 target. This programme of work needs to address the gaps in the existing protected areas systems, especially in providing habitat for critically endangered species and ensuring better coverage of freshwater and marine ecosystems. It also needs to include mechanisms to ensure the necessary participation and equitable sharing of benefits of protected areas, particularly with indigenous and local communities. Achieving an effectively managed system of protected areas requires that the necessary enabling conditions are put in place, including appropriate institutional and human capacity, assessment mechanisms and, most important, the financial support to make this happen.
IUCN is organizing a number of side events on protected areas and marine issues, including:
Tuesday, 10 February 2004, 13:15 - 14:45 Pahang (CEE)
Biodiversity in the Deep Sea: the Biodiversity of Seamounts and Cold Water Coral Communities
Friday, 13 February 2004, 13:15 - 14:45 Tun Dr. Ismail Hall A
The 2003 World Parks Congress and the WCPA Protected Areas Learning Network (PALNet): Implications for the CBD
Thursday, 19 February 2004 13:15 - 14:45 Tun Dr. Ismail Hall A
Natural World Heritage: a Key Tool for Biodiversity Conservation / Management Effectiveness: Saving what we've got
ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING
COP7 also offers a tremendous opportunity to make the necessary progress in addressing the third objective of the CBD. An important output of WSSD was the inclusion in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the need for an international regime to “promote and safeguard fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources”, which was endorsed by the CBD meeting on the Multi-Year Programme of Work. IUCN considers that the COP7 decision on the scope, reach and nature of this regime should ensure that its implementation contributes to poverty alleviation and sustainable development, enhances existing rights and regulations for source countries as well as for indigenous and local communities, and establishes clear and fair provisions for both users and providers of the genetic resources.
Wednesday, 11 February 2004 18:30 – 20:00 Kelantan
Legal and Practical Issues in Development, Negotiation and Implementation of the Access and Benefit Sharing Regime
Wednesday, 18 February 2004 13:15 - 14:45 Pulau Pinang
The International Regime on Access and Benefit Sharing: Regional Perspectives and Negotiation Options
MOUNTAIN ECOSYSTEMS
More than half the world's population relies on mountain water to grow food, produce electricity, sustain industries and, most importantly, to drink. Careful management of mountain ecosystems and the water resources they support has never been more important to our long-term security and survival. IUCN will be urging countries to consider the essential role of mountains for water availability and the need to take an integrated approach to their management.
Cloud forests are perhaps best known as the habitat of the mountain gorillas in Africa, but they are also a vital and threatened part of the mountain environment of over 60 countries, including many tropical islands. Cloud forests are a rare ecosystem, covering a total area of 380,000 sq km, or an area the size of Japan, and have not received sufficient attention for their exceptional concentrations of biodiversity and as sources of freshwater.
Cloud Forest Agenda is a product of the Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative, which is a partnership between UNEP and its World Conservation Monitoring Centre, UNESCO and its Man and the Biosphere Programme and International Hydrological Programme, and IUCN and its Commission on Ecosystem Management. In Kuala Lumpur, these three organizations will present a new report which aims to stimulate new initiatives and partnerships for the conservation and restoration of cloud forests around the world.
Monday 9 February 2004 13:15 - 14:45 Melaka Room
UNEP World Conservation Centre, IUCN and UNESCO launch the Cloud Forests Agenda for Action
For more information contact: Xenya Cherny, IUCN Communications;
E-mail: xenya.cherny@iucn.org .
IUCN recommendations for the COP7 are available at:
http://www.iucn.org/themes/pbia/documents/positionpapers/cop7.htm
The World Conservation Union http://www.iucn.org
Please also see:
Convention on Biological Diversity http://www.biodiv.org
Linkages http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/cop7/
At-Risk Wildlife 'Must Be Saved Now'
http://www.rense.com/general49/nesaved.htm
OPENING OF THE SEVENTH MEETING OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES
TO THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY (COP-7)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - On Monday February 9 2004, over 2,000 delegates from around the world, including cabinet ministers, world-renowned scientists and broad representation from NGOs and community organizations, will gather in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-7).
Priority issues will include the biological diversity of mountain ecosystems, the role of protected areas in the conservation of biological diversity and providing benefits to people, the transfer of technology and technology cooperation, as well as implementation of the target set at the sixth meeting of the Parties to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss of biodiversity at the global, regional and national level. The COP is also expected to follow up on the call for action issued at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development to negotiate an international regime on access and benefit sharing, to help developing countries and indigenous peoples share in the wealth created by their native plants and organisms.
“The survival of the human species depends on biological diversity. Without biodiversity, there would be no trees to produce oxygen, no water catchments and no biodegradation, so that organic waste would just accumulate,” says Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “The services provided by biodiversity are inestimable and yet, because they are free, they are often overlooked, to the point where biodiversity is still being lost at an alarming rate.“
COP-7 Opening Day Program
The Opening Plenary session will start at 10AM (local time) and will be presided, until the election of his successor, by Hans Hoogeveen, President of the COP-6 Bureau.
Mr. Zedan and Dr. Klaus Toepfer, Executive-Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), will make opening statements, following which the Parties will proceed with the election of the officers of the Conference, when it is widely expected that the Honourable Dato’ Seri Law Hieng Ding, Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, will be elected President of COP-7.
Two world-renowned keynote speakers will address the participants on opening day . Award-winning Canadian scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster, Dr. David Suzuki, Chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, will present the keynote speech during the morning session of the Opening Plenary, on “The Challenge of the 21st Century - Setting the Real Bottom line”. In the afternoon session, Dr. Emile Frison, Director General of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, will recall the theme of International Biodiversity Day 2004 with his address “Biodiversity, nutrition and health: making a difference to hunger and conservation in the developing world”.
Journalists should note that a press conference will be held at 13:15 (local time) following the Opening Plenary Session in the press auditorium on the 4th floor of the Putra World Trade Centre. UNEP Executive-Director Toepfer and Executive Secretary Zedan will join with Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Dato’ Seri Law Hieng Ding, to review the meeting’s key issues and objectives in the context of the work that has been accomplished over the two years since the sixth meeting of the COP.
About the Convention on Biological Diversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity is one of the key agreements adopted at the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. It has been ratified by 187 countries and the European Community who, together, constitute the Conference of the Parties. The Convention is unique among the legal frameworks arrived at in Rio because it seeks a comprehensive approach to sustainable development through three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.
The Conference of the Parties is the governing body of the Convention. It is a comprehensive forum for debate and action on sustainable strategies designed to preserve our ecosystems and improve human quality of life.
Visit COP-7 at: http://www.biodiv.org .
CONTACT:
In Kuala Lumpur
Nick Nuttall
Head of Media Services,
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
E-Mail: Nick.Nuttall@unep.org
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Montreal)
Diana Nicholson
Information Officer ad interim
E-mail: diana.nicholson@biodiv.org
United Nations Environment Programme http://www.unep.org