Life on earth: G8 plus five seek biodiversity version of Stern Report

Monday, 19 March 2007

Environment ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations and five major emerging countries agreed here on Friday to seek a fix on the economic value of Earth's treasure trove of life.

The study on biodiversity will be modelled on the Stern Report, said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, in a reference to a landmark report last year that estimated the economic costs of global warming.

The report will analyse "the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation," according to the so-called Potsdam Initiative.

The Stern Report, published last October by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern, unleashed headlines around the world with its warning that climate change, if untackled, would carry a ruinous price.

It could cost the equivalent of between five and 20 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) every year, the report estimated.

The G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States; the five big developing countries at Potsdam were Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Environment Ministry spokeman Thomas Hagbeck told AFP that the proposal for the biodiversity report would be put to the G8 summit in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm from June 6-8.

Experts from industrialised and developing countries would then be tasked with writing the report, said Hagbeck. He said no deadline had so far been set for when the document would be published.

Gabriel, who was speaking at a press conference, said biodiversity "is not just an issue for birdwatchers."

It was treated as "a poor relation," granted only rare and fleeting attention by politicians or economists" he said.

As many as 150 species become extinct each day, or a thousand times faster than natural processes, yet there was lamentably little knowledge about what these species did and whether they could be of value, he said.

Biological diversity was not just the key to food supplies, through soil fertility and healthy fisheries, it also amounted to a goldmine for the pharmaceutical industry, said Gabriel.

The Potsdam meeting, ending Saturday, also said it would help efforts to set up a global database of species, pledged closer cooperation on identifying and monitoring invasive species and vowed to intensify the illegal trade in wild plants and animals.

It promised "concrete initiatives" to promote trade in sustainable timber to help prevent the plundering of virgin forests.

Such measures would include a mix of regulations, market incentives, codes of conduct and certification about the sources of such timber.

The talks also aim to break the gridlock on how to tackle global warming, caused overwhelmingly by carbon gases emitted by fossil fuels.

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