Mylena Fiori
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Ministers of environment are assembled in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba at the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Biological Diversity Convention (COP-8). "We are the last generation capable of stopping the destruction of the environment in time," declared the executive secretary of the COP-8, Ahmed Djoghlaf, at yesterday's (27) opening session.

He asked the ministers to move quickly, since the main goal of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which was launched at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (Rio-92), in 1992, is to achieve a meaningful reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional, and national level by 2010. "Time is passing, and the clock does not cease to tick. We have 4 years to fulfill the pledge made by the heads of State," Djoghlaf warned.

For two days ministers of environment from all the world's continents and world-renowned experts will discuss issues such as the relationship between preservation of life on the planet and trade, agriculture, and reducing poverty. Questions like access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits are also on the agenda.

The executive director of the United Nations Program on the Environment, Klaus Topfer, pointed out that the 2010 targets are very significant to the goals of the millenium. "Nature's capital is more important than financial capital and is just as important as human capital, if we mean to reach our targets," he said.

The results of the debates will be presented tomorrow (29) by the president of the meeting, the Brazilian minister of Environment, Marina Silva, at the plenary session of the COP-8, which has drawn 3.6 thousand delegates from 173 countries to Brazil since last week.

Translation: David Silberstein