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AFP
Medell'edn, Colombia
A comprehensive, global appraisal of mass species extinction and what can be done to reverse it kicked off in Colombia's second-largest city Saturday, with more than 750 experts in attendance.
President Juan Manuel Santos opened the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) meeting in Medellin by stating that protecting biodiversity is"as important as fighting climate change."
Hundreds of scientists and government envoys are gathering at the event, which runs through March 26, to finalize details on five monumental reports designed to inform global policymaking into the future.
"Today the world is at a crossroads,"added IPBES president Sir Robert Watson.
"The historic and current degradation and destruction of nature undermine human well being for current and countless future generations."
Compiled over the last three years, the reports will provide the most up-to-date picture of the health of the world's plants, animals and soil. The diagnosis will be unveiled in two parts.
First, on March 23, the IPBES will release separate assessments for the four regions into which it has divided the world the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia. Then on March 26 a report will be released focusing on the global condition of soil, which is fast being degraded through pollution, forest-destruction, mining, and unsustainable farming methods that deplete its nutrients.
The evaluations took 600 volunteer scientists three years to complete, and includes summaries of data taken from about 10,000 scientific publications.
The end product covers the entire Earth apart from Antarctica and the open oceans those waters beyond national jurisdiction.
