World should embrace new target for protecting biodiversity – UN official

Arguing that environmental degradation could undermine progress in reaching global anti-poverty goals, a senior United Nations official today urged action in support of an international target for cutting biodiversity loss.

Alexander Müller, Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), made his remarks ahead of the first meeting of the Heads of Agencies Task Force on the 2010 Biodiversity Target.

In a statement, he said the recent proposal by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish a new target under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010 “is very much welcomed.”

The meeting, to be held in Gland, Switzerland, on 15 September, will bring together representatives of UN agencies, international environmental agreements and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are expected to adopt a joint statement promoting action to reduce biodiversity loss.

The 2010 Biodiversity Target calls upon countries “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.”

Endorsed by 110 leaders at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002, and then again by the Millennium +5 Summit in New York in 2005, the target is a follow-up to the Convention on Biological Diversity, FAO said.