biodiversity

The declaration outlines the commitments of CBD Parties to 18 actions for integration of biodiversity into the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism sectors to halt the loss of biodiversity across the world.

It was adopted after months of consultation with CBD Parties, ending with a series of high level roundtable discussions.

For the very first time, these discussions included the participation of Ministers from the four development sectors.

"It is critical that we build on this historic opportunity in terms of biodiversity conservation for the future”.

Presenting at the High Level Roundtable talks on "Mainstreaming biodiversity into the food and agriculture sector" in Cancun, Mexico last week, Samoa outlined the national, regional and international strategies and policies that help guide its work in achieving this.

"Our current Strategy for the Development of Samoa 2012 – 2016 clearly identifies environmental sustainability as one of our four key national priority areas.

The paper, published in the international journal Science, said changes in global temperatures were affecting the diversity and distribution of living species worldwide - but not enough is known about how to protect them.

The paper called for research to be done so outcomes for every species affected by climate change could be forecast.

Lincoln University researcher Dr William Godsoe, who was involved in writing the paper, said climate change was already affecting some of New Zealand's beloved native species.

The National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (NBSAP) two-day workshop was opened by Minister for the Environment Kiriau Turepu at the Pukapuka Hostel on Tuesday.

The project is part of the second generation of Biodiversity Enabling Activities under the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Cook Islands has been a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity since 1993.