President Kerim,
President of the European Commission José Barroso,
Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
Distinguished Members of Parliament, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to welcome you all most warmly to the High Level Segment of the 9th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. I'm delighted to see that so many of you accepted the invitations sent out by Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Bonn. The Mayor, Bärbel Dieckmann, is of course also here today. I know that this city is one that will welcome you with open arms and one where you will, I am sure, feel very much at home.
The 9th meeting of the Conference of Parties offers the international community a great opportunity to clearly demonstrate that we are ready to assume responsibility. We are ready to do our utmost to protect the natural wealth of our planet in the long term and thus also safeguard the basis of all human life.
This is certainly a huge challenge. In order to master it, we need to form national and international alliances between our scientific, political and business communities, involving the public at large. Only the United Nations can provide a satisfactory framework for such an endeavour. Within this framework, it is naturally up to the individual member states to take action.
The preservation of biological diversity is a matter to which the German Government – and I personally – attach great importance. For this reason I would like a strong and credible signal to go out from this Conference in Bonn to the world public – a signal that clearly demonstrates how important the protection of biodiversity is to the future of mankind. The dramatic loss of species is a key challenge of our time, up there with climate change.
The problems are huge. But you all know that, that's why you are here. Every day some 150 animal and plant species disappear. It is estimated that the international extinction rate is between one hundred and one thousand times greater than the natural rate of species loss. And yet biological diversity is something we need. It is the basis of human life.
Nor should we forget that natural diversity has much to offer us, for example in the field of medicine. The Pacific yew, for instance, has provided the blueprint for an important cancer treatment.
Nature is an excellent teacher. We have already learned a lot from her, but she still holds innumerable secrets that we may yet prise out of her. For example, how does the glow-worm achieve 90% energy efficiency? Nature is the repository of the accumulated knowledge of the ages, applied and refined over thousands or even millions of years.
But how are we humans to discover these potential keys to our survival when ever more species are being lost forever? In my opinion we clearly need a turnaround on species protection.
In the past years we have set ourselves some ambitious goals. We now have to meet them. Seminal decisions are needed here in Bonn. Above all, we must remember that it is crucial to strike a fair balance between the interests of the industrialized nations and the developing countries, between rich and poor. For fighting poverty and maintaining biological diversity are two sides of the same coin.
Together with access to water and fertile ground, natural diversity is the basis of many people's livelihood. It thus makes an indispensable contribution to food security and healthcare, above all in developing countries. We therefore have to grasp the conservation of biological diversity and its sustainable use as an opportunity for economic development and effective poverty reduction.
Without a doubt, the loss of diversity in developing and newly industrialized countries is closely linked to consumption patterns in the northern hemisphere. The worldwide rise in consumption of energy and resources is responsible for the over-exploitation of natural resources in developing countries. The spread of monocultures for the extraction of soya, palm oil and cellulose is an example of this trend. Forests and other natural habitats are being destroyed to make way for these crops.
An equal partnership between all countries is thus vital. Only through such a partnership will we be able to preserve our planet's natural wealth and sustainably use its natural resources for our mutual benefit.
Biodiversity is certainly not just a question of morals. It is also an economic factor. For this reason the countries of origin of genetic resources must also share in the benefits arising out of their utilization. If progress has been made on this front, all the better! But we still need a binding convention to protect the wealth of diversity in these countries and to give them a share in the gains.
This conference therefore needs a strong mandate so that significant progress can be made on access to genetic resources and the equitable sharing of the benefits by the 10th meeting of the Conference of Parties.
Germany is prepared to put its full weight behind this issue during its Presidency. I think that many promising proposals have been made. I would like to mention two in particular. The first involves the introduction of international certificates confirming legal access to and acquisition of genetic resources. The second proposes international standards for access to genetic resources.
These are certainly interesting options for ensuring a new balance between the supply of biological resources and their economic exploitation. We ought to help where we can – and we want to do so. To this end, we should turn our attention to the key element of international biodiversity policy – the global network of terrestrial and marine protected areas.
I thus consider the Life Web Initiative to be a beacon project of this Conference. The Life Web is intended to let states designate candidate areas for protection, and indeed to put them under protection, even if they themselves lack the required funds. Financial support should be raised from other states and private partners.
I will make it a personal priority to win support for this Initiative, at this Conference and beyond. I would like to invite all of you to join this Life Web.
We in Europe contribute to this worldwide network of protected areas at land and sea with our "Natura 2000" network. We must build on our implementation to date of this programme in order to fulfil our ambitious European goal – not only to reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010, but to bring it to a complete halt.
Of course we must also give our attention to the protection of endangered ecosystems around the world. In this context we should also seek to protect biological diversity and the climate at the same time by conserving habitats that absorb CO2. The conservation of our forests plays a key role, since forests provide a habitat for many, many species and also act as our planet's lungs.
The destruction of tropical rainforests is a problem for all humanity. Each year, some 13 million hectares of forest are lost. Around 20 % of global CO2 emissions can be traced back to slash-and-burn farming methods and the destruction and draining of marshes. That's more than is produced by global transport as a whole.
One possible option for financing the conservation of CO2-absorbing habitats would be to use some of the revenue generated by auctioning CO2 allowances. Other financial sources would of course also have to be tapped. The funding of the global biodiversity protection needs to be improved as a whole. This is a crucial prerequisite for reaching the goal adopted at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg of achieving by 2010 a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity.
I therefore hope that a viable strategy to mobilize financial resources will be adopted here in Bonn. Germany wants to lead by example. The Federal Government will therefore make available an additional 500 million euro for the years 2009-2012. We want to use this money in those areas where forests and other ecosystems are under threat and find quick solutions for conserving them. From 2013, Germany will provide half a billion euro annually for this work, as discussed by the Finance Minister, the Environment Minister and myself. I am convinced that this will be a good investment in our future.
But obviously, Germany cannot shoulder this enormous global burden alone. My thanks and respect will go to all states that announce an increase in their financial pledges for international nature protection in Bonn. Every additional contribution helps. I would like to take this opportunity to also thank the millions of supporters of nature protection around the world. With your activities in environmental organizations, foundations and voluntary initiatives, you have already done an incredible amount for nature protection. I hope that support will remain strong.
Ladies and gentlemen, in our globalized world raw materials travel vast distances and natural resources are used far from where they were found. We must therefore give consideration to global economic instruments. For example, how can we incorporate measures to protect and preserve forests into the international carbon market? This question, too, does not only belong on our agenda here, but also on that of the post-Kyoto process.
Another issue that deserves special attention at this meeting of the Conference of Parties in Bonn is the impact of energy biomass production on biological diversity. The production and use of biomass in energy generation is a rapidly growing business. Because it is good for climate protection, extracting energy from biomass has a positive impact on biodiversity and energy efficiency.
At the same time, producing energy from biomass can cause major problems. This is above all the case when tropical forests with their huge biodiversity are replaced directly or indirectly by biomass plantations. Even if forests are not cleared to provide land for energy biomass, other negative impacts on biodiversity must be avoided, such as those caused by monoculture or by putting ever more land under cultivation.
We clearly need biomass as a source of renewable energy. We cannot do without the contribution to climate protection made by sustainably and ecologically produced biomass. But we have to make sure there is no conflict of aims. I would therefore welcome the development by this Conference of Parties of guidelines on how to avoid the negative impacts of energy biomass cultivation on biodiversity and on food prices. These guidelines should be made available for those drawing up standards and certification systems outside this Convention.
Ladies and gentlemen, the international community only has two years left to meet the goal of significantly reducing the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010. We thus have not only an excellent opportunity to rise to this challenge at this 9th meeting of the Conference of CBD Parties, but also a duty to do our utmost to make key progress on protecting biodiversity worldwide. What is at stake is no more and no less than securing the basis for our own survival. It is also our responsibility to protect and maintain the opportunities for development of future generations.
You have a demanding agenda for the next few days with a view to drawing up a policy to preserve the diversity of species. I wish you strength, courage and a readiness to compromise in targeted discussions, so that the people of this world receive a clear message from Bonn, a message which says that we know that we have to worry about the resources on which life depends, but are using them responsibly and are ready to act together as the international community.
I wish you every success, and great drive and courage. All the very best!
