Expert calls on COP15 to come up with concrete measures to end biodiversity destruction

LUSAKA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing United Nations (UN) Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada, should come up with practical resolutions for countries to adopt measures to protect the biodiversity from further destruction, an expert said on Tuesday.

"This Conference of Parties is very crucial in the sense that it is a COP that is trying to address issues of biological diversity in the whole world. You know that the world has been losing a lot of animals, plants, and related species at a very alarming rate," Morgan Katati, the chief executive officer of the Zambia Institute of Environmental Management, a local organization championing social and environmental justice, said in an interview.

The expert said stakeholders were hoping that COP15 will deliver to the expectation of the global community by coming up with concrete measures to end the destruction of biodiversity in the world.

According to him, stakeholders expect the conference to come up with legal texts and negotiate strengths to ensure that the world goes on the path of reversal of biodiversity loss which was happening at an alarming rate.

The expert noted that climate change was a multiplier risk that has affected fauna and flora and was affecting wildlife management.

He added that the conference should come up with resolutions that will deal with the expansion of the human population and its effect on biodiversity.

He expressed concerns that financing for biodiversity protection was not as robust as a financing mechanism for climate change.

While acknowledging the existence of financing mechanisms for biodiversity protection, such as Biological Finance and the Global Environmental Facility, among others, the expert noted that the funds were not adequate because biodiversity conservation was expensive and required huge financing.

"Conservation is very expensive, especially if you want to talk about the restoration of natural species and the environment. It is not easy, and it requires huge investments," he added.