Thaís Brianezi
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Curitiba - The governor of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, Roberto Requião, urged Brazil to assume an inflexible stance on behalf of social and biological diversity at the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Biological Diversity Convention (COP-8), which began today (20) in the state capital, Curitiba.

Requião recalled that at present Paraná possesses only 3% of its native plant cover. "We represent 2% of national territory, but we account for 25% of the country's grain production. Agriculture, especially the plantation system [monocultural export estates], has been the chief bane of our nature."

The governor also regretted that the obligation to use the term "contains" to label shipments containing transgenic elements will only go into effect in 2012, according to an agreement reached at the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Biosecurity Protocol (MOP-3), which also took place in Curitiba and ended on Friday (17).

The COP is the deliberative organ of the Biodiversity Convention, which was one of the results of the Eco-92. This international agreement has three main goals: conservation of nature, sustainable exploitation of natural resources, and protection of traditional knowledge.

Translation: David Silberstein