Greenpeace today criticised world governments for failing to seize the opportunity to take urgent measures to protect the most biologically diverse areas on the planet —the last ancient forests—at this week's meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD. Despite having recognised that the world's "biodiversity is being destroyed by human activities at unprecedented rates", they failed to take the necessary action to stop further loss and admit that their efforts so far have been "too few, too little and too late".
This is the first time since the Rio Earth Summit that world governments discussed the fate of the world's last ancient forests. However, the Ministerial declaration released this morning ignores the strong recommendations on action provided by their own scientists (SBSTTA) which stressed "the need to urgently prioritise biodiversity conservation efforts on the most endangered and environmentally significant forest ecosystems and species, in particular primary [Ancient] forests."(1)
Some countries such as France, Germany and Russia supported action to stop the ongoing destruction. However, Brazil, Canada and Malaysia spent two weeks watering down the action program and blocking progress and failing to reverse forest loss and tackle illegal logging. The work program delivered failed to match the scale and urgency of the forest crisis.
"Environment Ministers came to The Hague to decide the fate of the world's last ancient forests and could have made history," said Brenda Ramsey from Greenpeace. "Greenpeace, as well as some governments, came here with high hopes to reverse the trend of ancient forest destruction. We are left only with minor steps that fail to match the scale of the crisis. Governments will not be able to justify this to future generations who will inherit the results of their failure."
Joss Garman (16) from Wales, one of a thousand young people representing 19 countries, who came to The Hague to express their concerns and hopes said: "I do not understand what games are played here. All they care about is money and their own interests. Our forests are our future if they are not preserved we could see the gorilla and other animal and plant species disappear."
"The last ancient forests are now in the hands of Heads of Government who will meet at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in August this year," said Ramsey. "Greenpeace will continue to do what's right for the forests and the people who live in and depend on them for their livelihood and culture. We will continue to expose all those who threaten their survival."
The ministers also discussed proposals to stop and prevent biopiracy, the theft of genetic resources from developing countries by US pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. This is reflected in the declaration. Greenpeace believes that any agreement to stop biopiracy will be insufficient if the resources to be shared are disappearing. Most of the biodiversity on the planet is found in the last ancient forests, which are still not protected.
Ancient forests house up to 80 percent of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. During the 12 days that delegates met to discuss the fate of the ancient forests, another 360,000 hectares of ancient forests were lost—that 's an area the size of over half a million football fields.
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