Nagoya: More Fine Words And No Action?

A 2 week convention on biodiversity started today in Nagoya, Japan. The aim of the meeting is to set new targets for preserving the planet's biodiversity (i.e. The number of plant and animal species).

If past environmental meetings are anything to go by, there will be many moving speeches about how we must act now to avert impending disaster but little will actually be achieved.

However, all is not lost.

The new hope is that, by estimating the value of the 'services' provided by our natural environment, politicians, businesses, and the public will finally realise the actual cost of our actions.

Yes, they're actually trying to put a price on Nature.

This approach certainly appears to be focusing the minds of governments and companies alike. Suddenly, there are all sorts of projects out there to protect forests and halt fishing in designated areas, even without a global agreement. But it remains to be seen if these will continue to be the exceptions rather than the rule.

Regardless of the outcome of Nagoya, there needs to be a genuine commitment, from all nations, to preserve biodiversity very soon. Up to now, countries have been more than willing to agree targets only to miss them by a mile. We can't afford to do this anymore, otherwise Nature will soon be handing us a bill we cannot afford.

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More on biodiversity's services here and here.