Special session – biodiversity

Excellencies, dear friends of the planet Earth,

Welcome to this Special session on biodiversity. I am honoured to be asked to co-chair to this session together with Rob Wolters. We are looking forward to some good ideas and positive results!
 
Loss of biodiversity is one of the most challenging and crucial issues in Europe today.  The EEA assessment report to the Belgrade conference states that the 2010 biodiversity target will be difficult to reach¬ unless considerable additional efforts are made.

The economic value of biodiversity is extremely high. The loss of biodiversity is already exacting vast economic costs.  One widely marketed bio-medical product alone can be worth 5-10 billion dollars a year. Take this as only one indication of the economic value of biodiversity, and of the great costs of policy inaction in this field.

The last Environment for Europe conference in Kiev recognised the importance of the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity, The Kiev resolution on  biodiversity therefore identified nine key targets for halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010.
 
Thanks to considerable efforts of the participating countries and the NGOs we have been able to focus on the issue of biodiversity throughout the pan-European region. There have been a number of promising measures/developments in important areas. For example, in:

• Development of the Pan-European Ecological Network throughout the region in collaboration with the EU
• Agreement on 26 biodiversity indicators developed by the Streamlining European 2010 Biodiversity Indicators project
• Cooperation with the Minister Conferences on Protection of Forests in Europe on a pan European agreement of the relationship between the ecosystem approach and sustainable forest management
• Development of the European strategy on invasive alien species under the Bern Convention.
• Awareness-raising through the whole region by using and supporting IUCN’s Countdown 2010 campaign.

But how can we move forward? How can we build on the Kiev platform? In my opinion, the answer is very simple.  The way forward is through partnerships.

Hopefully this conference will lead to a number of new partnerships for preventing the loss of biodiversity. 

In partnership we need to move from the international level to the national, into local communities - and into the environment where people live and work.

Secondly, we need to speed up the implementation of the Convention on biological diversity both regionally and nationally.

And thirdly, we need to make visible the values connected to biodiversity and the ecosystems. 

The target of an implementation strategy for the convention must be that people see all the valuable benefits, and not only the very few costs, of saving biodiversity.

And: governments must follow this up with legal, economic and administrative incentives!
 
I realize that we need a pan-European instrument to push this process forward.  Norway therefore wishes to express its warmest appreciation of PEBLDS and its work. We are also glad to see that IUCN’s campaign on halting the loss of biodiversity, is growing rapidly. The Countdown 2010 declaration has now been accepted by 289 stakeholders in our region. 

I would also emphasize the importance of having the European Community and its member countries as ambassadors and partners in this work. Without the EU as a committed partner, the work within the pan-European biodiversity strategy would otherwise progress more slowly.

Finally, I hope that this Special Session of the Environment for Europe conference leads to a broad understanding on this particular issue, ¬ and to the necessary moral and economic support of all PEBLDS' partners, old and new .

Thank you!