Going beyond climate change

IPS: While the financial mayhem continues to draw the headlines, the cost of persistent biodiversity loss has yet to be established. But it is believed to be bigger than that of the meltdown, and in many cases also irreparable. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) now plans to gather incontrovertible evidence on the value of preserving biodiversity and the cost of losing it. The world's oldest and largest global environmental network will task its scientific commissions for this.

This is one eminent pillar of the immediate and strategic priorities of the IUCN as spelt out by the organisation's new president Ashok Khosla. The idea, backed by IUCN's ten-day world conservation congress that concluded Tuesday (Oct 14) in Barcelona, is to protect the biosphere, with particular focus on the conservation of biodiversity in all its manifestations.

"This means that we must do what is necessary to bring the issue of biodiversity right into the centre stage of public awareness, media concern and decision-making at the local, national and global levels," Khosla told delegates at the closing session….