Roelandt Savery The flightless Dodo of Mauritius was heavily hunted for food and was last reported from an offshore islet in 1662 Zoom In

Rich must pay to protect rare wildlife

10-02-2004

Developing countries must be better supported by richer nations if their wildlife is to be spared the fate of the Passenger Pigeon, Dodo and Great Auk, an international conference has heard.

At the Seventh Conference of the Parties (CoP7) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which began in Kuala Lumpur on 9 February, the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) has demanded that all countries fulfil legal requirements to provide financial support for conservation measures in developing nations.

All three species are long extinct and the RSPB fears many other species will go the same way if more cash is not forthcoming from first world states to fund conservation initiatives that support wildlife and the peoples living closest to it.

The RSPB wants a finance working group of governments and NGOs set up to ensure pledges of funding made in 2002 are fulfilled and a detailed plan of how valuable areas will be protected put together, taking the needs of local people into account.

Deserts, inland lakes, temperate grasslands and marine areas are amongst the highest priorities; less than one per cent of the world’s seas are protected and 88 per cent of coral reefs in South East Asia – important habitats for fish and unique species such as the cone snail - are threatened by human activity.

John James Audubon Over the 19th century, the Passenger Pigeon crashed from being one of the most abundant birds in the world to extinction Zoom In

"Only a major international effort to protect these crucial areas on which our remaining wildlife depends will save some of the world’s most cherished natural habitats." —Alistair Gammell, Director of International Operations, the RSPB

Almost 200 governments are represented in Malaysia of which 188, out of 191 UN member states have ratified the CBD since it was agreed in Rio in 1992. The accord committed developed countries to helping fund conservation measures in poorer states. The World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg ten years later agreed that a target for reducing biodiversity loss by 2010 should be set, recognising that this would require additional financial resources.

That target has yet to be specified although delegates at last year's World Parks Congress stated that about $25 billion annually would be needed to set up and maintain a worldwide network of protected areas. An international study by the RSPB and Cambridge University showed that better care of ecosystems such as forests and mangroves, would produce health and other benefits worth between $3,750 and $4,500 billion.

Governments are avoiding talking about who should pay how much and when, but the RSPB says such negotiations should be the top priority at CoP7. Alistair Gammell said: "There is no point in having a protected areas plan without money to implement it. Decisive action must be taken by world leaders now to secure a future for global biodiversity and provide the resources to protect it, as well as an agreed means of tackling longer-term problems such as misguided economic policies and the destructive use of natural resources."