Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-15-Speech-3-382"
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"en.20060315.28.3-382"2
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".
Mr President, it is now 13 years since the UN Convention on Biological Diversity was signed, and yet biological diversity on earth is becoming poorer and poorer. When the eighth conference of the parties to the agreement begins next week, the world situation will be one where some 16 000 animal species and 60 000 plant species are under threat of extinction. We are exploiting our ecosystems in an unsustainable way. Globally, the major factor causing the impoverishment of diversity is land use which changes the natural environment to make it more profitable. Every year, some 2% of the earth’s original natural environments become agricultural and forestry land or part of the built environment.
Because the problems of habitats, their species and the impoverishment of hereditary diversity are generally only seen after some time has passed, the nature of the biodiversity ceiling as part of global change has not received sufficient attention. As a result of the deterioration in ecosystems, their function and the free services they provide for humans, such as the production of clean water and the maintenance of the hydrological cycle, carbon binding, the pollination of edible plants and the recycling of nutrients, could be very adversely affected. Ecologists and economists have calculated that the value of the free services provided by nature amounts to the incredible sum of approximately EUR 23 billion a year, which is more than the combined national product of the entire world. The services provided by an ecosystem can to some extent be returned, for example, by afforestation of logging areas prone to erosion, but forest plantations will not compensate for the diversity of natural forests. We therefore share the same clear desire: we want to halt the impoverishment of nature. Where, however, will the wisdom be found to embark on effective ways of doing so?
The resolution contains many worthy recommendations, but when you look at nature itself, you cannot help but marvel at its wisdom. Nature itself is infinitely productive, creative and even extravagant, but at the same time efficient and practical. Nature provides a model for what a natural economic system of production is actually like, and what to aim for with an ecological product design. Nature is not concerned about integrated product policy from start to finish: for nature, everything is always the start of something new. We need the same sort of wisdom – but also an unbiased approach – to be able to overcome the difficulties that lie ahead."@en1
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