UK to host international meeting calling for tougher biodiversity laws

The UK will today host a major international meeting intended to help usher in a new era of improved protection for global biodiversity built around ambitious targets and tough new legislation.

The London meeting of more than 60 countries will be co-chaired by the UK and Brazil and is intended to reach agreement on a new regulatory framework to protect biodiversity ahead of the UN's annual biodiversity summit in Japan in October.

To avoid the tensions and last-minute wrangling between rich and poor nations that marred the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference last month, British ministers have vowed to work closely with Brazil and other developing countries to try to hammer out an effective agreement ahead of the October meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Draft documents prepared by the UN ahead of the London meeting suggest that the CBD will aim to deliver tough new legislation designed to avoid a repeat of the current scenario, whereby 2010 targets for curbing species loss have been missed by a considerable margin.

Diplomats will discuss imposing a new target to stop the rate of biodiversity loss by 2020, and backing it up with tough new measures. These include commitments to end subsidies that harm biodiversity by encouraging forest clearance or overfishing, bans on destructive fishing practices, and an extension of protected areas to cover at least 15 per cent of land and sea by the end of the decade.

Many of the proposals are likely to prove controversial – for example, any attempt to phase out subsidies is likely to face opposition from some countries – but the British government is hopeful that a compromise can be reached on a number of key issues this week that can be taken forward to the October meeting.

Writing in an opinion piece for the BBC web site today, environment secretary Hilary Benn argued there was a strong economic case for improving biodiversity protection.

"Flora and fauna matter for their own sake; they lift our spirits and nurture our souls," he wrote. "But our ecosystems also sustain us and our economies – purifying our drinking water, producing our food and regulating our climate."

He also hinted that there is an argument for improving mechanisms for putting a price on biodiversity and environmental services – an area currently being researched by Defra. "Perverse subsidies and the lack of value attached to the services provided by ecosystems have been factors contributing to their loss," he warned. "What we cannot cost, we don't value – until it has gone."