Cabinet-level ministers from more than 90 nations are facing a major test of their commitment to protecting the planet under provisions of a biological diversity convention, during three days of high-level meetings.
As ministers arrived in Brazil on Sunday for the UN-sponsored environmental conference, activists said the gathering would indicate how serious governments are about environmental goals outlined in the Convention of Biological Diversity and about support for the Global Fund for the Environment.
"In a sense we are at a crossroads. If concrete measures don't emerge from this conference, the convention could lose its credibility," said Marcelo Furtado of the environmental group Greenpeace.
"If that happens pressing environmental issues could end up being dealt with at other forums like the World Trade Organization where economic considerations take greater priority," he said.
Organizers said 93 government ministers were expected to participate in the three days of high-level talks at the Eighth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which began last Monday in Curitiba, 650km southwest of Rio, and runs until Friday.
The Convention on Biological Diversity arose from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where over a 100 world leaders recognized that the world's environment was in peril and pledged to take steps to protect it.
This year's conference is the eighth biannual conference, aimed at reviewing progress made toward goals set out at the Earth Summit.
"The [ministers'] meeting is strategically placed during the second week. That way the high level meetings can address the most controversial issues of the past week that have been ironed out by their delegations," said Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva, who is presiding over the conference.
"It's a key political moment when the leaders of the global agenda commit themselves to work toward the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity," Silva said.
The number of ministers attending this year's meeting is substantially higher than the 16 Cabinet-level officials who participated in the seventh conference in Malaysia, but it remained far from clear whether their presence would be enough to convert good intentions into action.
The outlook for the planet's biological diversity is not very good, according to the UN and environmentalists.
At the conference's opening, a UN report concluded that species were being lost at the fastest rate since the disappearance of dinosaurs -- or as much as 1,000 times faster than the natural rate of extinction.
Greenpeace released maps last week showing that less than 10 percent of the world's forests remained intact and environmentalists said that governments worldwide have failed to honor their commitments to the Global Fund for the Environment, another product of the Earth Summit, leaving the fund with only US$10 billion -- or US$67 billion less than promised.
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