German minister warns of rapid loss of global biodiversity

Global biodiversity is disappearing at an unprecedented speed and could have a negative impact on world trade, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Friday.

"Up to 150 species are becoming extinct every day," he told a meeting of environment ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) nations and emerging economies in Potsdam near Berlin.

"We are eliminating nature's database as never before," added Gabriel, who is chairing the two-day meeting as his country is to host the G8 summit in June.

Gabriel said that the loss of biodiversity will have an economic affect because an estimated 40 percent of world trade is based on biological products or processes.

The G8 ministers, as a consequence, agreed to initiate a report in which the economic value of biodiversity is detailed, he said.

The report serves as one of the initiatives the ministers are working on to find concrete areas for closer cooperation in order to meet the target of significantly slowing checking the loss of global biodiversity by 2010, according to Gabriel.

The two-day meeting brought together environment ministers or officials from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, in addition to those from Germany, Italy, France, Britain, the United States, Canada, Japan and Russia.

The participants will discuss ways of strengthening international action to fight climate change.

Source: Xinhua