BONN:The world faces a Herculean task to safeguard animal and plant life from climate change and pollution, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said at the opening of a UN biodiversity conference on Monday.
About 4,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries met in Bonn for a two-week Convention on Biological Diversity conference at which they aim to agree on ways to slow down rising extinction rates.
UN experts say human activities including greenhouse gas emissions mean the planet is facing the most serious spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. One species disappears roughly every 20 minutes, they say.
"In my view, climate change and the loss of biodiversity are the biggest challenges the world faces," Gabriel said in a speech opening the conference, held once every two years. He vowed to do all he could to get accord on ways to tackle the problems.
"It will be a Herculean task to get the world community and each individual country on the right path to sustainability," Gabriel said, noting that extinction rates were 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural rates.
A UN summit in 2002 set a goal of slowing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 but most experts say that target is out of reach. Biodiversity has jumped up the political agenda due partly to a recent surge in food prices, which has been linked to booming demand in fast-growing economies, including China, and the growing use of crops to provide fuel.
Experts say agricultural crops will suffer if wild stocks die out. Without a change in human consumption habits, feeding 9 billion people will be impossible, they warn.
Gabriel told the delegates biodiversity affected the life of the world's poorest people. He said if no action was taken, commercial fishing would have to end by 2050 -- a devastating scenario for millions of people who rely on fish protein.
He also highlighted the problems facing forests - areas of forest three times the size of Switzerland were lost every year. Gabriel said countries had to work together on difficult issues such as agreeing on rules on access to genetic resources and sharing their benefits.
Developing countries want to ensure they get a share of the financial rewards from their natural resources which pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms are keen to tap. "We must be flexible and not just point out deficits in others. Let us try to understand each other and to meet middle ground," Gabriel urged the delegates.
