World 'to fail' on nature target - BBC

[Eugene]

Source: BBC News

Page last updated at 04:35 GMT, Monday,
13 October 2008 05:35 UK

World 'to fail' on nature target
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Barcelona

The world's governments will fail to meet their
agreed target of curbing biodiversity loss by 2010,
according to experts questioned by BBC News.

Nearly 200 countries signed up to the target in 2002.

Ten leading conservationists asked here at the World
Conservation Congress were unanimous that the goal
cannot be met.

All the global indicators of progress are heading in
the wrong direction, and few governments have even
translated the target into national legislation.

-snip-

The CBD was agreed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992,
but not until 10 years afterwards did it acquire a
firm, supposedly binding target - "to achieve by 2010
a significant reduction of the current rate of
biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national
level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to
the benefit of all life on Earth".

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7666079.stm

[Meeker Morgan]

1. Does the "world" fail, or was the whole business unrealistic in the first place?