| Conservation of biological diversity is
the subject of Chapter
15 of Agenda 21, which was adopted by the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, in 1992, in Rio de Janeiro.
At the same Conference, the
United Nations
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which has subsequently
entered into force, was opened for signature. In 2002, the World
Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, addressed biological
diversity in Chapter IV, paragraph
44, of
the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. The Johannesburg Summit also
endorsed the target to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the
current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national
levels as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of
all life on earth, which had some months earlier been adopted by the
sixth meeting of the CBD Conference of Parties (COP).
Biodiversity has also been discussed by the Commission on Sustainable
Development on several occasions and is one of the themes for discussion
in the 2012/2013 two-year cycle.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment released in March 2005 concludes
that there has been a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the
diversity of life on Earth due to human action. Among the outstanding
problems are the dire state of many of the world’s fish stocks, the
vulnerability of the 2 billion people living in dry regions to the loss
of ecosystem services and the growing threat to ecosystems from climate
change and nutrient pollution. |
