One of the delegates, Valerie Lacroix, to the French symposium on, "Biodiversity and Governance," sent these interesting details on some of what she heard at the meeting:
While Jeremy Jackson noted that the biodiversity status of the oceans is worse than that of the land, the general “6th extinction” evaluation was overall gloomy as Dr. E.O. Wilson warned that the current average extinction rate is about 100 times higher than natural rates. Yet, scientists generally pleaded for more research, arguing that lack of knowledge prevents them from presenting a unified message to decision-makers.
President Chirac’s proposition to create an intergovernmental group on the evolution of biodiversity, developing a worldwide network of experts, was a response to this concern. However, numerous were the orators whom, such as Jose Sarukhan, National Institute of Ecology of Mexico, insisted that there was enough evidence for action.
Going against their own personal interests, some scientists, of which Jeremy Jackson was one, pointed out that science only monitors the decline of biodiversity, and that it might be much more useful to include social sciences, such as communication, sociology or economy, in the equation. This warmly applauded vision was obviously taken into account by the Scientific Committee, as the final “Paris Appeal of scientists in favour of biodiversity” recommends the launch of an international multi-stakeholder consultative process guided by a balanced multi-stakeholder steering committee.
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources of Kenya, said that the greatest challenge is to convince decision-makers and society that biodiversity is a priority, stressing that in spite of the fact that humans are better informed than 30 years ago, they continue destroying species with the prospect of their own destruction. She wondered “What will have to happen to cause a tsunami in our minds?”.
We can only hope that the creation of yet another international body might result to more than just new painful assessments on the state of our planet’s biodiversity. And as there is no certainty that it will, we might chose to follow the wise words of Wangari Mathaai, and strive to “convince decision-makers and society”…
yes, just what we ned -- she says:
... recommends the launch of an international multi-stakeholder consultative process guided by a balanced multi-stakeholder steering committee.
can we get an acronym for it, something simple like IMSCPGBMSSC
Posted by: James Wheeling at February 4, 2005 03:30 PM