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BIODIVERSITY: Good Intentions Eclipse New Funding at U.N. Meet

Stephen Leahy

BONN, May 31 2008 (IPS) - The world community took some ever-so-careful steps towards slowing the biodiversity crisis at a major U.N. meeting in Bonn, while emphasising the need for urgency and action.

Agreement on the need for more protected areas in tropical forests and oceans was universal, but only Germany offered any new funding. On the contentious issue of biofuels and their impacts on food and biodiversity, members agreed at the last minute that biofuels production ought to be environmentally sustainable and not impact biodiversity. There was also an agreement on a de facto moratorium on ocean fertilisation schemes.

And, after 16 years of meetings, the 168 nations that have ratified the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) agreed to a final two-year timetable to establish an asset and benefit sharing (ABS) regime.

ABS is about access to biodiversity and equitable sharing of benefits resulting from its use. The intent is to end “biopiracy” – the exploitation of indigenous plants and animals for profit without permission or compensation – and reverse countries’ denial of access to any native species for scientific or commercial purposes. Half of all synthetic drugs have been derived from plants or insects.

“This is a real breakthrough. This agreement is a detailed framework on how to put ABS into place,” said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who is also the president of the CBD for the next two years.

It might seem strange that delegates enthusiastically cheered this “Bonn Mandate”, an agreement to have two more years of meetings. But in fact, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia have fought hard against anything resembling a legal obligation to compensate countries in the developing world for the use of their genetic resources, a delegate from Malaysia told IPS: “They don’t want to share any money they’ve made from using our biodiversity.”

The United States is not on that list simply because it has not ratified the CBD and cannot vote. However, the delegate, who did not wish to be named, said the U.S. also opposed the ABS and was allied with Canada on this issue.

So what does this have to with stemming the loss of species that provide the ecological services that support life on Earth? Under the CBD, parties are obligated to protect biodiversity, and the thinking goes that if countries can be compensated under an ABS regime, they will have financial incentives and resources to better protect their biodiversity.

“Without a legally binding ABS regime, we cannot build tomorrow’s green economy,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme.

Steiner is referring to a growing “biological-based industrial revolution” that either use natural substances like toxic-free fire proofing made from grape skins to those the mimic nature such as new anti-bacterials based on marine algae. Hundreds of new products and services are under development and backed by more than one billion euros in financing. However, an international agreement is needed to move this new nature-based economy forward, Steiner told IPS.

“Countries are closing their borders when they could be collecting investments that will help them make land use decisions in favour of protecting biodiversity,” he said.

Governments and industry in the developing world need to understand there is tremendous financial potential in biodiversity and that they have to make investments. “Protecting natural areas cannot be done on philanthropy alone,” Steiner said.

With two days left in the conference, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 785 million dollars between now and 2013 to help defend threatened forests and committed to the same amount annually after 2013. She then called on other countries to contribute as well, telling ministers that, “Obviously, Germany cannot shoulder this enormous global burden alone.”

Despite universal agreement that more money was needed, no other country made a financial commitment. Last fall, Norway pledged 600 million euros a year for the next three years.

“At the CBD COP (conference of the parties) in 2004, delegates pledged to invest more money for protected areas on land and sea but there has been little progress,” a spokesperson from Greenpeace International, Martin Kaiser, said in the final plenary session in Bonn Friday.

Greenpeace has estimated that 30 billion euros a year are needed to protect forests alone, to halt deforestation and provide a reduction of more than 20 percent in CO2 emissions. “Germany has demonstrated leadership and a strong commitment but none of the other rich G8 countries have stepped up,” Kaiser said.

Japan, which is hosting the next CBD COP in 2010 and has given biodiversity top priority, now needs to make a substantial investment in protecting forests, he said.

Protecting forests and grasslands is now much more difficult because of the boom in biofuels production in many countries, environmental activists argued. Some pushed hard for a moratorium on all new biofuels production, while others, including the European Union, insisted on a certification process to ensure there are no impacts on biodiversity. Brazil objected to any certification at all, calling it a trade barrier.

Compromise was the end result. Instead of certification, there is a package of terms outlining countries’ obligations to ensure sustainable production, consultation with indigenous and local communities, and minimise impacts on food production and biodiversity.

“We’re fairly happy with the agreement reached,” said Helena Paul of EcoNexus, a British-based environmental group.

“Certification is not practical. It would be very complex and require on-the ground enforcement,” said Paul, who represented the NGO community.

Biofuels were the most intensely debated issue in Bonn with biofuel-powerhouse Brazil going head to head with the EU that badly needs biofuels to meet its greenhouse gas commitments but has been stung by scientific and other reports that some biofuels make climate change worse, lead to deforestation and are pushing up food prices.

The terms could be stronger, but there is a clear message that countries producing biofuels must be very careful, Paul told IPS.

Delegates also agreed that care was needed in attempts to reduce atmospheric levels of CO2 by artificially creating phytoplankton blooms in the oceans. Called ocean fertilisation, the idea is to seed the ocean with iron particles to stimulate growth of phytoplankton, which remove CO2 from the atmosphere and then sequester it deep in the oceans. Several companies have promoted such schemes, but the marine scientists say there is not enough research to know what the ecological impacts are.

“The CBD agreed to a de facto moratorium,” Kristina Gjerde, IUCN high seas policy advisor, told IPS.

Although this decision doesn’t apply to the high seas, it sends a message to anyone wanting to invest in ocean fertilisation that the world community wants the ecological impacts to be studied first, Gjerde said.

Although oceans cover most of the planet and hold most the world’s biodiversity, they have not been a major focus of the CBD until the last few years.

“There’s been a definite switch, including the CBD’s concern about the impacts of bottom trawling, which pushed the issue onto the U.N. agenda,” she said. “The CBD plays a vital role in bringing these important issues to the attention of countries.”