Monbiot.com » A Ghost Agreement:Biodiversity in Japan

Monbiot.com » A Ghost Agreement
A Ghost Agreement
Posted November 1, 2010 Everyone agrees that the new declaration on biodiversity is a triumph. Just one snag: it doesn’t appear to exist.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 2nd November 2010

“Countries join forces to save life on Earth”, the front page of the Independent told us. “Historic”, “a landmark”, a “much-needed morale booster”, the other papers chorused(1,2,3). The declaration agreed at the summit in Japan last week to protect the world’s wild species and wild places was proclaimed by almost everyone a great success. There’s only one problem: none of the journalists who made these claims has seen it.

I checked with as many of them as I could reach by phone: all they had read was a press release, which, though three pages long, is almost content-free(4). The reporters can’t be blamed for this: though it was approved on Friday, the declaration has still not been published. I’ve now pursued people on three continents to try to obtain it, without success. Having secured the headlines it wanted, the entire senior staff of the Convention on Biological Diversity has gone to ground: my calls and emails remain unanswered(5). The British government, which lavishly

'Dodo Awards’ to Canada the EU - - Activists and civil society discuss in Nagoya,Japan

'Dodo Awards’ presented to Canada and the EU - News and Updates - a network of activists and civil society representatives advocating for improved participation in CBD processes

Civil society organizations at the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have announced the winners of the Dodo Awards as the Convention begins its second week of negotiations. The Awards, named after the Dodo Bird -- the quintessential symbol of biodiversity loss -- signify governments’ failure to evolve