The 2010 Nagoya Biodiversity Conference: No New Ground Broken?

Despite of providing "undocumented" trillions of dollars to the global economy, are the powers-that-be squandering the world’s biodiversity at our own peril?


By: Ringo Bones



2010 has been very much dominated by the US-China Currency War, joblessness issues and the vanishing middle class, not to mention lack of “social mobility” that has always been the hallmark of the post World War II global economy, but is our powers-that-be been ignoring the issue of biodiversity for so long now that it threatens all mankind? Though biopiracy concerns had been seriously discussed – i.e. multinational pharmaceutical companies profiting from herbs used by indigenous folks without cutting them a share of the profit, governments around the world seem to lack the political will to legislate and enforce binding agreements on how to maintain their various countries biodiversity and environmental protection.

A healthy biodiversity probably contributes ¼ of the global GDP – same as the consumer electronics industry – and yet the trillions of dollars contributed by a healthy biodiversity in the agricultural sector had been ignored at everyone’s peril. Most crops are very dependent on various insects for pollination and fruit-bearing, while some can only thrive when the microbiological diversity of the soil they are growing on is at optimal levels. And recent studies have shown that a healthy biodiversity also plays a part in sequestering carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the soil ands out of the atmosphere when they can exacerbate global warming. If the important steps to secure biodiversity are taken in 2010, maybe results – for the better – will start to show in 2011.