Juliana Andrade
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília – Brazil is home to between 15% and 20% of all living species, according to the Ministry of Environment (Ministério do Meio Ambiente), and a country with one of the greatest varieties of biodiversity in the world. That is the backdrop to the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Conferência das Partes da Convenção sobre Diversidade Biológica) (COP-8) which will be hosted by Brazil in the city of Curitiba, state of Paraná, at the end of this month.

With 188 "parties," the COP is the most important convention dealing with biodiversity. According to João Paulo Capobianco, secretary of Biodiversity and Forests at the ministry, the main goal of the Curitiba conference should be to put into practice what has been decided on up to now. He says the main pillars of the COP are: conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of natural resources and a just and equiable sharing of the benefits from the use of biodiversity.

"There are enormous expectations that what has been proposed over the lifetime of the COP can be effectively implanted and the world enter a new cycle - a cycle of real protection of biodiversity. Unfortunately, in recent decades the opposite has occurred: there has been a drastic reduction in biodiversity," he declared.

"Brazil and many other countries are in this together. We want to do something. We want results. We want to work together to change the way people treat the planet's biodiversity," said the secretary, pointing out that it is believed that there will be a massive presence of ministers of Environment from all over the world and that real progress will be made in Curitiba.

Translation: Allen Bennett