Thaís Brianezi
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Pinhais (PR) - Only 14 States have submitted their special reports on protected areas to the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and Brazil is not one of them. Submitting this document was one of the commitments made at the last Conference of the Parties to the CBD, the COP-7, held in Malaysia two years ago. The CBD has 187 signatory nations, as well as a regional bloc, the European Community.

The parties that delivered their reports are: Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Poland, Thailand, Turkey, and the European Community.

"Many countries allege lack of resources to prepare the document. But this justification is only valid for very poor countries," declared Ashish Kapavriksh, the Indian representative of a worldwide group of 20 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work with conservation units. "As a result, we really can't ascertain where progress is being made and where there are the biggest problems to be confronted."

The press office of the Brazilian Ministry of Environment affirmed that the document is in the preparatory stage.

Yesterday (23), the question of protected areas was the object of a demonstration by the environmental group, Greenpeace, at the COP-8. At the entrance to the event, the activists set up a Paper Parks exhibit in reference to the fact that there are conservation units that exist only on paper.

The COP is the deliberative body of the CDB. It meets every two years. 3,600 representatives from 173 countries are participating in the conference in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba.

Translation: David Silberstein