Top environmental experts and officials are in intense talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to halt the loss of biodiversity and protect ecosystems that support food and water security and health for billions of people. The two-week talks are taking place in the framework of the UN Biodiversity Conference. It includes meetings of the governing bodies of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its protocols. It comprises the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 14), the ninth meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety and the third meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing. Under the name “Investing in Biodiversity for People and Planet”, COP 14 was inaugurated with the announcement that Egypt had taken over the presidency of the conference for the next two years from Mexico, president of COP 13. The Sharm El-Sheikh event, gathering participants from 196 countries, was attended by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Christina Palmer, the executive secretary of the Conference of the Parties' biodiversity agreement, in addition to ministers from Egypt and other countries and environment and biodiversity experts. Addressing the conference, President Al-Sisi emphasised the importance of saving natural resources from extinction for coming generations. “This conference comes at a time when biodiversity is facing enormous challenges, accelerated degradation and the associated challenges facing ecosystems,” the president said, pointing out that human annual consumption of natural resources is more than 30 per cent higher than that of the Earth's ecosystems. He said the conference reflected a collective vision of the need to integrate biodiversity into all aspects of life. The president's speech at the convention Preserving biodiversity, stopping land deterioration and overfishing in Africa were issues discussed throughout the meeting ahead of COP 14, Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad said. Before the inauguration of COP 14 there had been a summit for African environment ministers to unite visions and arrange the continent's priorities. Sharm El-Sheikh was declared a city for investment in biodiversity during the high-level meetings held ahead of COP 14 which were attended by Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed, South Africa Minister of Public Works Thulas Nxesi, Costa Rican Minister of Environment and Energy Carlos Rodriguez, and Palmer. Officials who signed the declaration stressed that biodiversity serves the planet's ecosystem and is essential to all living organisms. Man's heath, prosperity, economic growth and sustainable development depend on biodiversity, they said, adding that biodiversity should be applied to the health, energy, mining, infrastructure and industry sectors in order to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. These are 20 global targets under the 2011-2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity. They are grouped under five strategic goals: addressing the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society; reducing direct pressure on biodiversity and promoting sustainable use; improving the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity; enhancing the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services; and enhancing implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building. Al-Sisi and top officials at COP 14 The delegates added that it was necessary for all concerned parties, such as civil societies, women, youth, governments, municipalities, academics and the financial and business sectors, to invest in biodiversity. Hamadallah Zidan, scientific advisor to COP 14, said three problems constitute a thorn in the side of the world — climate change, desertification and biodiversity. “The three are tightly intertwined. Climate change is a result of global warming and the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide, which is a consequence of cutting forests and trees. This resulted in the deterioration of land because of the elimination of micro-organisms. This is when desertification took place, ultimately leading to the planet's loss of its biodiversity,” explained Zidan. “The connection between the three causes obliges international organisations to merge and deal with them on a parallel footing,” he added, pointing to the UN declaration on the agreements on climate change, desertification and biodiversity. Enjoying rare and extensive biological diversity, Egypt called for merging the three agreements to simplify the responsibilities of countries towards the environment and for all nations to advance together on the subject, Zidan said. Restoring biodiversity, he added, will be achieved simply by using ecological systems that protect biodiversity, ease the repercussions of climate change and prevent land deterioration. “Biodiversity that is lost is not restored easily. It could take a million years to be recreated. “All countries are obliged to commit to international environmental agreements. Those which ignore them will be harmed first,” he warned. “It is obvious that political powers support environmental causes. This was evident in the number of ministers participating in the closed sessions of the African ministers summit on the sidelines of COP 14 in Sharm El-Sheikh,” Zidan said, adding that this guarantees that the recommendations of this international event will be applied through environmentally friendly investment projects.
