Today's Date:

The crisis affecting our natural heritage is unprecedented: at the current rate of the losses we are inflicting on biodiversity, half the living species will have disappeared by the end of the century.

Since the Rio Summit, in 1992, mankind has begun to appreciate the scale of this threat which, like climate change, today hangs over our planet's future. With ever increasing numbers of people in a finite area with limited resources, we have today to devise a new form of sustainable development compatible with the protection of ecosystems, so that we don't suffer from their extinction tomorrow. Aside from the potential irreversible loss if not only whales, the great apes of Africa, but also many plants and micro-organisms were to become extinct, the social implications of the protection of biodiversity are huge. On it depend not just the Northern and Southern countries' economic development, but also the well-being of future generations, particularly through medical research.

With the Convention on Biological Diversity, the international community has set itself the goal of halting the erosion of the living environment by 2010. Many countries, custodians of an amazingly large share of the world's biological heritage, have begun taking the necessary protection measures.

For her part, France, conscious of the duties her exceptional biological wealth imposes on her, has embarked on an unprecedented effort to safeguard the diversity of her ecosystems by adopting, in 2005, a national strategy on biodiversity and, in 2006, a new Act on nature reserves allowing the creation, by the end of this year, of the Réunion and French Guiana national parks. This commitment has also been demonstrated by the speeding-up of the process of getting the New Caledonia great coral barrier reef declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, strengthening of the Conservatoire du Littoral [coastal areas conservation agency], stepping-up of the fight against trafficking in protected animals, and increased cooperation with the Congo Basin countries on the sustainable management of the tropical forest.

Nevertheless, the international community has to wake up to the destruction which is accelerating with globalization, and do much more. Whilst the general public, media and all the political decision-makers now seem to have understood the consequences of climate warming, the same does not yet apply to biodiversity. The difference in awareness is principally because of the fact that climate research is at a far more advanced stage.

The remarkable efforts of scientists all over the world, working together in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have led to an international scientific consensus on the reality and consequences of global warming which, at the outset, many refused to accept. Thanks to the IPCC, the general public has now been informed of the imminent dangers related to climate change.

It was this experience which prompted my decision to organize in Paris in January 2005, the International Conference on "Biodiversity: science and governance" to promote a global dialogue between scientists, political decision-makers, representatives of civil society and economic players from both South and North. This conference launched a dialogue on the usefulness of a new international mechanism on biodiversity similar to the IPCC.

The scientific community's support for this project shows the degree to which such a debate is necessary today. It must not, however, be confined to experts. This is why an international steering committee has been set up, bringing together scientists, governments, international organizations and representatives of civil society, in as balanced a group as possible. I am pleased that a report on the progress of its work is to be made in Curitiba at the Eighth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

However, improving our knowledge of these developments at global and regional level will not be enough. Improving the efficiency of world, regional and local governance in the field of biodiversity is equally necessary. Huge headway has been made since the negotiation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992. Nevertheless, despite the Convention, despite its plans, despite its decisions, the loss of biodiversity, far from slowing down, is continuing. Faced with this situation, we urgently have to intensify international action and make it more effective. This is the only way the collective goal we have set ourselves will be achieved.

The first country in the world to have incorporated a Charter for the Environment into her Constitution, France intends resolutely pursuing her efforts to safeguard the diversity of the living environment, in both metropolitan France and her Overseas Departments and Territories. Beyond her borders, she will continue to commit herself, bilaterally and multilaterally, to the protection of biodiversity. We are determined to pursue this commitment alongside the Southern countries, custodians of an exceptional heritage, on which they depend for their development, because the protection of biodiversity is today a global challenge, one which demands from us responsible action and solidarity./.