Climate and Biodiversity

What’s at Stake with Regards to Biodiversity for “Rio +20”

As much as water or air, biodiversity is essential to the life and well-being of every human being. It is what provides us with enough to eat, clothe ourselves, and care for ourselves. It provides us countless services such as climate regulation, natural disaster mitigation, and combatting soil erosion.
Yet, around the world, biodiversity is threatened by human activities. The States Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have established a strategy to stop this deterioration. The Rio +20 Summit should be an opportunity to propose ways to make progress in this direction.

Forests, in turn, focus significant global issues in biodiversity and combatting the greenhouse effect and as such focus everyone’s attention as we approach Rio+20. Governance of international forestry issues at this time remains very patchy and should indirectly benefit from the reforms proposed as we approach Rio with regards to governance of the international environment at large.

France’s Commitment with Regards to Biodiversity for “Rio +20”

France and Europe are committed to taking greater account of biodiversity and services provided by the ecosystems in all public policies. To this end, they are proposing a global partnership involving civil society and developing new indicators in addition to GDP. It is a question, in particular, of measuring the economic value of natural capital, integrating this value in national accounts, and promoting investment in natural capital.

With regards to the forest sector, France :

• will defend the vision of sustainable forest management adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007,

• maintain its commitment as an active stakeholder in the European Union’s FLEGT Action Plan regarding illegal logging and the timber trade, and the REDD+ mechanism for combatting deforestation implemented at the Copenhagen Summit on Climate,

• will also highlight its experience and perspectives regarding tropical forests with a number of flagship projects and by disseminating a collective work by all French actors (public, private, universities, and associations).