More money needed to stave off extinctions threat, says RSPB

Developing countries must be better supported by richer nations if their wildlife is to be spared the fate of the dodo, mammoth and great auk, an international conference will hear this week.

All three are long extinct and the RSPB fears many other species will go the same way if more cash is not forthcoming from first world states to fund conservation initiatives that support wildlife and the peoples living closest to it.

At the Seventh Conference of the Parties (CoP7) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), starting in Kuala Lumpur today, the RSPB will demand that all countries "fulfil legal requirements" to provide financial support for conservation measures in developing nations.

The RSPB called for a finance working group of governments and NGOs to be set up to ensure pledges of funding made in 2002 are fulfilled and a detailed plan of how valuable areas will be protected put together, taking the needs of local people into account.

Deserts, inland lakes, temperate grasslands and marine areas are amongst the highest priorities – less than 1% of the world’s seas are protected and 88% of coral reefs in South East Asia are threatened by human activity.

Endangered birds include the great Indian bustard of which there are fewer than 1,000, the hyacinth macaw, the marbled teal and Seychelles magpie-robin, which is found only on three islands in the Seychelles. All thrive in habitats now at risk from logging, agriculture and development.

Alistair Gammell, Director of International Operations at the RSPB, said: “Only a major international effort to protect these crucial areas on which our remaining wildlife depends will save some of the world’s most cherished natural habitats.

“We know from a recent paper in Nature that climate change poses a huge extinction risk to more than one million species and that we must take steps to mitigate the effects of global warming. But species threatened by climate change need large areas of good habitat if they are to survive. If we do not take the measures needed to provide these areas, we will be guilty of neglect on a huge scale.”

Almost 200 governments will be represented in Malaysia of which 188, out of 191 UN member states, have ratified the CBD since it was agreed in Rio in 1992. The accord committed developed countries to helping fund conservation measures in poorer states.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 10 years later agreed that a target for reducing biodiversity loss by 2010 should be set, recognising that this would require additional financial resources.

That target has yet to be specified although delegates at last year’s World Parks Congress stated that about £14.5 billion annually would be needed to set up and maintain a worldwide network of protected areas. An international study by the RSPB and Cambridge University showed that better care of ecosystems such as forests and mangroves, would produce health and other benefits worth between £2,400 billion and £2,800 billion.

The RSPB said that governments had been avoiding talking about who should pay how much and when.

(gmcg)