Dear BIOPLANNERS,

The First Meeting of the Environment Ministers 
of the Americas included a session on 
"conserving biodiversity in healthy ecosystems 
(see the summary extracted from the ENB 
coverage).

Best wishes

David Duthie.

***********************************************
SUMMARY REPORT OF THE FIRST MEETING OF THE 
ENVIRONMENT MINISTERS OF THE AMERICAS: 

29-30 MARCH 2001 

Full coverage of the First Meeting of the Ministers of the 
Environment of the Americas, can be found at: 
http://www.iisd.ca/sd/ema/ 

The first Meeting of the Environment Ministers of the Americas 
convened from 29-30 March 2001 in Montreal, Canada. Sponsored 
by Environment Canada, the two-day meeting brought together 
environment ministers from 34 nations of the Americas with 
democratically elected governments and more than 100 other 
representatives from governments, international organizations and 
United Nations agencies. The meeting provided a forum for debate 
among the ministers of environment in order to develop key 
messages to be forwarded to the Third Summit of the Americas, 
which will convene from 20-22 April 2001 in Quebec City, Canada. 

The meeting was structured according to three key themes: 

the challenge of environmental management in a changing 
hemisphere - the need for innovation; 

environment and health - understanding the linkages; and 

conservation of biodiversity in healthy ecosystems. 

The meeting resulted in the adoption of a Ministerial Communiqué, 
which will be forwarded to the Third Summit of the Americas. 
 

********************************************************
CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY IN HEALTHY 
ECOSYSTEMS 

Yolanda Kakabadse, President of the World Conservation Union 
(IUCN), delivered the guest speaker address on "Conservation of 
Biodiversity in Healthy Ecosystems." She drew attention to the 
Americas' wealth of natural resources, noting that they hold 51% of 
the world's forests, 65% of the world's tropical forests, 52% of the 
world's potable water, more than 40% of the world's plants, more 
than 52% of the world's amphibians and 44% of the world's birds. 
She identified managing this wealth in order to fight poverty as the 
largest challenge facing the hemisphere, and commented that 
improper management of these resources and the subsequent loss 
of biodiversity could generate even more poverty. She said 
conservation and protection must form part of economic 
development and stressed that a hemispheric alliance must take 
social, political, economic and environmental considerations into 
account. She said the economic capacity of biodiversity is 
undeniable and emphasized the need to integrate environmental 
concerns into trade policy. She called for institutional strengthening 
to provide better information and noted the need to address 
inconsistencies in domestic legal frameworks. She drew attention 
to the North American Waterfowl Management Plan as an example 
of regional cooperation for the rest of the world. 

Session moderator, Russel Mittermeier, President of Conservation 
International, reminded participants that biodiversity loss is an 
irreversible process and identified two paths in front of the world 
today with regard to biodiversity: liquidate it now and restore it 
later; or value intact ecosystems now. Pointing to efforts in the 
Americas, he noted that: Suriname recently declared 10% of its 
area as protected; Peru and Bolivia each identified mega-corridors; 
and Brazil identified seven mega-corridors. He further commented 
that Brazil has an interesting network of private conservation areas 
that could provide some examples. 

He highlighted the importance of protected areas for biodiversity 
conservation, noting that these can take the forms of traditional 
national parks, private reserves, conservation corridors, mega- 
corridors, international agreements on migratory species 
conservation, and conservation concessions. He highlighted the 
importance of a global assessment to register all existing species. 
The ensuing discussion focused on: 

Regional and sub-regional experiences from biodiversity 
conservation efforts; 

Improving information on biodiversity conservation; 

Enhancement of citizen engagement and partnerships; and 

Strengthening linkages and networks within the hemisphere. 

Regarding regional and sub-regional experiences, a minister 
highlighted the establishment of the Inter-American Biodiversity 
Information Network (IABIN) as a result of the 1996 Bolivia 
Summit, and informed participants that IABIN has a website 
offering technical information on issues such as how to deal with 
invasive species and how to evaluate risks from introduction of 
GMOs. Ministers also highlighted that the initiative to conserve the 
Mesoamerica Biological Corridor involved ministers of agriculture, 
transportation and economy, and suggested that this could be seen 
as a model for others. 

One minister said the development of solutions to biodiversity loss 
is slow in comparison to the magnitude of the problem and urged 
the international banking system to provide an assessment of the 
costs of protecting biodiversity to facilitate decision making and 
dialogue with other national decision makers including ministers of 
finance and economics. Regarding the global biodiversity 
inventory project, one minister hoped to hold a meeting of 
countries in the region on the subject. 

Several ministers also underscored conserving marine biodiversity, 
noting its importance to nutrition and economic activity. Others 
also drew attention to the increasingly important issue of invasive 
alien species and marine pollution from solid waste such as 
plastics. 

A minister from a small island developing State drew attention to 
the challenge of achieving a balance between creating employment 
and conserving his country's small land mass. He suggested that 
improved information on global trends would assist in making the 
decisions required to reach a successful balance between 
development and conservation. He also called for more 
information on specific issues such as alien species. Stressing the 
importance of the Caribbean Sea, he said the Caribbean 
Community (CARICOM) would like it to be a nuclear free zone 
because an accident during transportation of nuclear waste could 
literally wipe them out.

Another minister appealed that special assistance be given to 
countries with a high level of poverty that are protecting species at 
the expense of development. He drew attention to the need to 
learn more about soil biodiversity, noting that use of agrochemicals 
has resulted in the destruction of soil biodiversity. 

On enhanced citizen engagement and partnership, one minister said 
that increasing awareness of the value of biodiversity has 
produced results in protected areas and areas that border them. 
Ministers also pointed to the need to strengthen institutional 
capacity to, inter alia, protect areas and provide public education 
on environmental benefits. 

Several countries highlighted their protected areas and drew 
attention to challenges surrounding their management. They 
stressed the need to provide alternatives for economic gain for 
protected area dwellers so that they will not resort to destroying the 
resources. One minister raised the question of how to make 
protected areas open for economic development. Another minister 
reported that it had successfully relocated some local communities 
outside of protected areas. One minister indicated that biodiversity 
and social diversity must be addressed together. Participants also 
indicated that more data on protected areas is (sic) needed to 
provide guidance on how to better manage them. 

Several countries highlighted domestic accomplishments: Colombia 
noted that it designated 28% of its land as an indigenous reserve 
because the indigenous people, only 3% of the population, have a 
demonstrated capacity to manage ecosystems; Costa Rica 
remarked that 26% of its territory is under some form of 
protection; Guatemala highlighted that 28% of its area is protected; 
Dominica noted its reputation as the "nature island" and remarked 
that one of its preserves is a UNESCO world heritage site; Chile 
highlighted its development of an integrated biodiversity 
conservation programme; Belize outlined its efforts toward 
establishment of a national biodiversity information system; and 
Ecuador informed that it recently declared three additional 
protected areas. 

In closing, Mittermeier highlighted issues that emerged during the 
discussion: the need to address marine and freshwater biodiversity 
conservation; the need to create better mechanisms for 
biodiversity information sharing; the need to develop understanding 
of what biodiversity loss means and the cost of its restoration; the 
importance of involving local communities; the value of 
contributions from indigenous people; the need to protect migratory 
species; and the need to address invasive species.

The Ministerial Communique contains the following general points 
on conservation of biodiversity in healthy ecosytems (the full text 
of the communique can be read at:  http://www.iisd.ca/sd/ema  ):

CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY AND HEALTHY 
ECOSYSTEMS 

On the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems, the ministers 
highlight healthy and productive ecosystems as the basis of the 
economic and social health of nations and note the critical situation 
of the ecosystems of the hemisphere currently under stress as a 
result of human activities. They commit to stimulate and 
strengthen cooperation for the conservation, management, and 
sustainable use of biological diversity and healthy ecosystems 
throughout the Americas in support of the objectives of the 
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other related 
agreements and initiatives, including the implementation of the 
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. They highlight the efforts 
undertaken by the working groups of the CBD on access to genetic 
resources and the protection of traditional knowledge and 
encourage governments to cooperate in the areas of information 
sharing, in particular, with the implementation of the Biosafety 
Clearinghouse, and developing the Inter-American Biodiversity 
Information Network (IABIN). 

The ministers commit to work on habitat losses by: developing 
better information on losses and the implications for biodiversity; 
promoting improved management of protected areas through 
cooperative regional activities; exploring the expansion of existing 
hemispheric networks for terrestrial and marine protected areas, 
including linkages to create biological corridors such as the 
Mesoamerica Biological Corridor; and developing information- 
sharing networks for invasive alien species as well as cooperative 
efforts on prevention, control, management, public education and 
outreach, and incident notification. 

Finally, the ministers commit to work in areas including: migratory 
species, by supporting the development of a hemispheric strategy 
to enhance their conservation and sustainable use throughout the 
Americas that includes management, and the protection of 
wintering and breeding areas and migration routes of species within 
and across boundaries; forests, by promoting the adoption of 
concrete and urgent actions toward the implementation of 
sustainable forest management, building on existing international 
instruments and cooperation such as criteria and indicator 
processes, including the UN Forum on Forests and the 
implementation of the proposals for action of the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Forests and the Intergovernmental 
Forum on Forests; and illegal trade in wild flora and fauna, by 
strengthening partnership networks and information systems to 
assist in the implementation of the Convention on International 
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). 

Dr David Duthie (Programme Co-ordinator)
UNEP/GEF Biodiversity Planning Support Programme
T-133
PO Box 30552
Gigiri
Nairobi
KENYA

Tel: +254-2-623717
Fax: +254-2-624268/623162
E-mail: david.duthie@unep.org
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