UN seals historic treaty to protect threatened ecosystems

By Karl Malakunas

A historic global treaty to protect the world's forests, coral reefs and other threatened ecosystems within 10 years was sealed at a UN summit on Saturday.

Rich and poor nations agreed to take "effective and urgent" action to curb the destruction of nature in an effort to halt the loss of the world's biodiversity on which human survival depends.

Delegates from 193 countries committed to key goals such as curbing pollution, protecting forests and coral reefs, setting aside areas of land and water for conservation, and managing fisheries sustainably.

"This is a day to celebrate," UN Environment Programme chief Achim Steiner said straight after the accord was struck early on Saturday morning following nearly two weeks of tense talks in the central Japanese city of Nagoya.

Delegates and green groups also said the accord offered hope that the United Nations could help to solve the planet's many environmental problems, particularly after the failure of climate change talks in Copenhagen last year.

One of the most significant elements of the accord was a commitment to protect 17 percent of land and 10 percent of oceans so that biodiversity there thrived.

Currently only 13 percent of land and one percent of oceans are protected.

Nevertheless, Greenpeace expressed disappointment at the new targets, which delegates said were lowered on the insistence of China and some other developing countries.

There were other limitations to the Nagoya pact -- including that the United States was not a signatory as it is one of the few countries not to have ratified the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

But while some green groups said the 20-point plan was not as ambitious as hoped, most still welcomed it as a historic step towards united global action in tackling biodiversity problems and raising awareness about the issue.

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