KL hosts UN meet on ecosystem protection

KL hosts UN meet on ecosystem protection

Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur

More than 2,000 government officials, scientists and
environmental watchdogs will gather in Malaysia for a UN-backed
meeting to promote protection for threatened ecosystems and help
developing countries share in the wealth created by their native
species.

Delegates attending the Seventh Conference of the Parties to
the Convention on Biological Diversity, which will run for nearly
two weeks starting on Monday, hope to curb the rate of
extinctions spurred by threats such as pollution, overfishing and
commercial logging, organizers said.

"The survival of the human species depends on biological
diversity," said Hamdallah Zedan, executive secretary of the
Convention on Biological Diversity, an offshoot of the 1992 Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro that has been ratified by 187 countries
and the European Union.

"The services provided by biodiversity are inestimable, and
yet ... they are often overlooked, to the point where
biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate," Zedan said in a
statement. "Without biodiversity, there would be no trees to
produce oxygen, no water catchments and no biodegradation, so
that organic waste would just accumulate."

The conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city, is
expected to seek measures to improve global environmental
preservation, especially in mountains, forests, oceans and
coastal areas, and propose timetables and realistic goals to
guide these efforts.

Delegates will also explore the creation of an international
framework to help developing nations and indigenous people
safeguard their heritage and share in the benefits of commercial
use of their natural resources.

Meanwhile, environmentalists say they will urge governments to
improve financing and law enforcement to protect forests where
poaching and logging are increasingly rampant and marine species
and habitats are threatened by overfishing, diving activities and
pollution.

Government representatives from at least seven countries -
Brazil, Congo, Ecuador, Indonesia, Jamaica, Madagascar and Palau
- are expected to announce new agreements with nongovernmental
organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund to strengthen their
roles in conservation efforts.