Thaís Brianezi
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Curitiba - Environmental destruction has escalated in the years since 1992, when the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the Eco-92 (Rio de Janeiro Conference on the Environment and Development). This contradiction was noted by Brazil's minister of Environment, Marina Silva, in her opening speech at the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Biological Diversity Convention (COP-8), which began today (20) in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba.

The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment Report, published last year by the United Nations (UN), reveals that the loss of biodiversity in the last 50 years has been greater than at any other time in human history. The report goes on to affirm that projections and scenarios indicate that these rates of destruction will persist and may even accelerate.

"I make an appeal for the complexity of our debates not to deflect us from the task of formulating proposals to implement the convention," the minister declared. She made a point of referring to the difficulties involved in obtaining a consensus at the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Biosecurity Protocol, which was also held in Curitiba and ended on Friday (13), its major result being the decision to make it mandatory as of 2012 for shipment labels to inform whether or not the cargo contains transgenic products.

"I am very concerned about multilateral agreements that fail to translate into concrete actions," the minister declared. "We must remember that 2010 is only four years away. In Johannesburg [South Africa, where the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in 2002], we pledged to reduce the current rates of biodiversity loss by this date."

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.

The conference is being attended by the Convention's 187 signatory countries, as well as the European Community. 6 thousand representatives of these countries will be gathering in Curitiba until March 31 to participate in the debates and negotiations. The decisions are made only by consensus.

Translation: David Silberstein