Biodiversity loss worrying experts

Conservation biologist Adriana Vella has just participated in an international five-day conference on biodiversity held at Unesco's Paris headquarters.

The conference was held to debate the natural and vital heritage resource of biodiversity, which is being destroyed irreversibly by human activities.

Dr Vella, co-ordinator of the Malta National Biodiversity Platform, said after the conference she looked forward to seeing conservation biology research in Malta being given the financial backing it deserves especially in view of biodiversity conservation needs.

"Advancing our national scientific capabilities demands national investment in our youths' and scientists' research projects. Our depleting biodiversity also demands urgent consideration towards improving capabilities to deal with biodiversity conservation effectively," Dr Vella said.

The term biodiversity was coined in the 1980s and taken up at the Earth Summit in 1992. It refers to living species as a whole, their genetic variability and the diverse ecosystems they form. It focuses on the links that bond species to each other and to their physical environment. These links define a natural grouping with particular characteristics.

The Paris conference included four plenary meetings and 15 workshops focusing on various issues, which enabled participants to share their views through presentations, panels, posters and debates.

One notable participant was the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, Klaus Toepfer, who stressed the impact of biodiversity loss on humankind.

He said that preserving healthy ecosystems was crucial for achieving the millennium development goals and implementing sustainable strategies for land use, industry and tourism.

He stressed the inter-linkages between climate change, desertification and biodiversity loss and called for investments in capacity building and in coherent, coordinated and policy-relevant science.

Another interesting contribution was by Hamdallah Zedan, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Mr Zedan noted that despite increased recognition of biodiversity's value, knowledge about biodiversity loss was limited.

He highlighted the challenge faced by the international community to achieve the 2010 target to significantly reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss and called for stronger international cooperation and effective communication on biodiversity loss and its effects.

Mohammed Valli Moosa, president of the World Conservation Union, focused on the direct links between biodiversity loss and human activities, warning that more than 15,000 species were threatened with extinction.

He suggested a framework to put biodiversity at the centre stage of human activities on the basis of four key elements: people around the world, science, regulations and laws at all levels and the market force.

Dr Vella took part in the workshop on fisheries management, which focused on challenges for fisheries management.

http://www.bioplatformmalta.org/