Public awareness of the consequences of the loss of biological diversity needs to be enhanced worldwide. This is the most important of a number of recommendations to politicians resulting from a three-day expert workshop which ended in Berlin today and served to prepare the UN nature conservation summit in Bonn in May 2008. "Besides climate change, the destruction of ecosystems worldwide is the biggest global environmental policy challenge. We want to turn the tide by 2010. In order to achieve this, we have to place the topic on the global political agenda" said State Secretary Matthias Machnig of the Federal Environment Ministry.
The Federal Environment Ministry had invited high-ranking international experts to a workshop from 13 to 15 December 2006 in preparation of the world summit on biological diversity in Bonn in May 2008. The goal was to develop specific strategies and measures to turn the tide on the loss of biological diversity by 2010. Heads of state and government from all parts of the world had committed themselves to this "2010 target" at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. "As host of the UN nature conservation summit in Germany in 2008, we want to make a decisive contribution to turning the tide on the loss of biodiversity. This is why we have mobilised the expertise that is available worldwide well ahead of the conference in order to stimulate international discussion early on and outside of the normal preparation process", Machnig stated.
Among other things, the experts recommend interlinking the CBD more closely with other environmental agreements, notably the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and to better integrate biodiversity issues into all relevant policy areas, such as agriculture, development cooperation and world trade. A standing committee is foreseen to render the cumbersome and administrative preparatory process for Conferences of the Parties more efficient. An independent scientific body, similar to the international UN expert panel on climate change (IPCC) is to be established to improve policy advice on issues related to biodiversity. Moreover, it is of prime importance to raise public awareness for the loss of biodiversity worldwide. In this context, the experts recommend conducting studies on the economic cost of the failure to take action for the protection of biodiversity and of the concomitant loss of ecosystem services.
At the end of the workshop State Secretary Machnig signed the "Countdown 2010" Declaration. This Declaration commits the Federal Environment Ministry to step up its efforts to reach the 2010 target, to promote the establishment of an international network of marine protected areas, especially during the German EU Presidency, and to organise a European expert workshop on "The 2010 target and marine ecosystems". Moreover, the Federal Environment Ministry wants to engage the private sector more strongly in the protection of biological diversity and advocate a greater commitment of cities and local authorities. Biodiversity will be one of the focal points during the German EU and G8 Presidencies. About 125,000 hectares of federally owned land that are highly relevant for nature conservation are to be transferred to the Federal Laender and to nature conservation associations and a national strategy on the protection of biological diversity is to be adopted.