UN High-level Event on Biodiversity
 

A high-level meeting on biodiversity took place on 22.09.2010 during the 65th General Assembley, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York. A note by the Secretary-General on the high-level meeting of the General Assembly as a contribution to the International Year of Biodiversity (document A/64/865) was handed to the participants to serve as a background paper for the meeting.

“We are bankrupting our natural economy” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed during the event and added that “a rescue package similar to that introduced after the global financial crisis is urgently needed to halt the worldwide loss of biodiversity, which is resulting in a heavy human cost”.

According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), ecosystems – and the biodiversity that underpins them – generate services worth trillions of dollars, supporting livelihoods around the world.

Characterizing ecosystems as “our natural capital,” Mr. Ban stressed that a loss of biodiversity can lead to the failure of crops, a drop in profits, a deepening of poverty and economic decline.

According to the UN, the world will not meet the 2010 target to slow the decline in biodiversity, part of the eight globally-agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Nearly 17,000 plant and animal species are currently at risk of extinction, while the number of species under threat of being wiped out is also growing by the day.

Although investment to reverse biodiversity decline has increased, the main causes of the decline – high consumption rates, habitat loss, pollution and climate change – are not adequately being tackled.

The Secretary-General urged the world leaders to commit to reducing biodiversity loss. “This will be your legacy – your gift for generations to come” he said. He also called on them to push forward the strategic plan on biodiversity and the 2050 biodiversity vision expected to be adopted at the Tenth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to be held in Nagoya, Japan, next month.

Additional information:

Secretary-General, at High-Level Meeting, Stresses Urgent Need to Reverse Alarming Rate of Biodiversity Loss, Rescue ‘Natural Economy’; Conservation Inseparable from Fight against Poverty, Says General Assembly President, as Thematic Panels Discuss Way Forward – press-release

Source: UN News Centre