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SOUTH AMERICA:
Rich in Biodiversity,
Lagging in Protection
By Milagros Salazar
LIMA (IPS) - South America is the only
region that has not submitted a report of
its actions in the last year to implement
the Convention on Biological Diversity,
although it accounts for 40 percent of the
world’s plant and animal species and the
deadline was Mar. 30.
"These reports are very important in order
to combat threats against biodiversity,"
David Cooper, Programme Officer at the
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) told IPS, referring to the
fourth annual report, which many countries
in the region have not presented.
The countries that have failed to comply are
Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador,
Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Without their reports, there is no record of
the actions, strategies and progress they
have made toward the protection of
biodiversity, which holds up regional
progress on the issue, the experts
complained.
Cooper and more than 30 representatives of
South American governments, environmental
groups and other other civil society
organisations are in Lima participating in a
high-level meeting to assess the region's
progress and interests in relation to the
CBD's 2010 biodiversity target to
significantly reduce the current rate of
biodiversity loss at the global, regional
and national level.
The two-day meeting at the headquarters of
the Andean Community trade bloc ended
Wednesday with a declaration on progress and
limitations in reaching the target, and a
list of priorities for action as the 2010
deadline looms.
The CBD, approved in 1992 at the Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the
foremost instrument for stemming the loss of
biological diversity and ensuring equitable
and sustainable access to the resources and
benefits of that wealth.
To promote compliance with the Convention,
the Countdown 2010 Initiative was created
within the scope of the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in
2004 for Europe and in 2007 for Latin
America.
There are 150 partners in the initiative,
including government representatives,
private companies and organisations around
the world committed to curbing the loss of
biodiversity.
"Biodiversity is a local issue for each
country, but we share a common
responsibility," Sebastian Winkler, the head
of the Countdown 2010 Initiative and an
adviser on European policy, told IPS.
"But as a region, Latin Ameria has not lived
up to the commitments made in signing the
Convention because so far, the countries
have not reported on their national
strategies, unlike Africa, for example," he
said.
Winkler stressed that the countries of Latin
America must make an effort to "monitor the
present state of biodiversity and play a
more active part in international
processes."
South America not only possesses 40 percent
of the planet’s biodiversity, but also 25
percent of the forests and 26 percent of the
fresh water sources. This vast natural
wealth has also made it one of the most
vulnerable regions.
Among the main threats that were pointed out
at the Lima meeting were the impact of
climate change which causes animal and plant
species to die out, the uncontrolled
extraction of natural resources and the
modification of land use in the Amazon -
that is, the expansion of areas devoted to
agriculture and other productive activities
to the detriment of the jungle.
"The earth is being trampled on," said
Norberto Ovando, an Argentine expert on
protected areas in his country.
Statistics on damage to biodiversity
worldwide are worrying. According to the
IUCN's Red List, last updated in 2008, there
are 16,928 species threatened with
extinction, equivalent to 38 percent of the
species catalogued. Thirty-six million
hectares of pristine forests have been lost
every year since 2000.
José Javier Gómez, an environmental affairs
official at the Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
told IPS that "governments have not made
efforts to preserve protected natural
areas," and that this is one of the main
flaws in the implementation of the
Convention.
The Andean Community, made up of Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, has encouraged
countries to create a regional policy to
make progress on their commitments, although
those involved have admitted that they will
not be able to meet the target.
"It's true that the 2010 target will not be
met; the goal was very ambitious and
countries have tried to fulfil about 60
percent of it," said Mariela Cánepa, in
charge of biodiversity issues at the Andean
Community Secretariat.
"But there is no certainty, because there is
no indicator to measure progress. No
baseline was ever established, or a
diagnosis to determine where we were and
where we are now," she told IPS.
Cánepa added that countries have made
progress mainly at the legislative level,
but the policies that have been designed
have not begun to be implemented, mainly
because of the weakness of environment
ministries, which receive limited funds, and
because a cross-cutting biodiversity policy
involving all parties has not been designed.
On Tuesday, the first day of the Lima
meeting, a review of progress was carried
out, which was far from encouraging, and
preliminary priorities for 2010 were
proposed. Among these were strengthening
alliances between government and civil
society representatives, defining indicators
to measure progress on the commitments, and
enlisting the private sector in the defence
of biodiversity.
Another proposal was to create communication
strategies to spread simple, non-technical
information, in order to involve the public
in this global problem.
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