Meio Ambiente

The Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment (MMA), Izabella Teixeira, took part in the launching of the International Year of Biodiversity, on January 7, in Curitiba (PR). The ceremony also ended the second Curitiba Meeting on Cities and Biodiversity, which brought together about 90 authorities and environmental technicians from 16 countries. The meeting was a preparatory event for the Conference of the Parties (COP-10) that will be held in Nagoya (Japan), in October.

The General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). In the midst of global efforts to draw society's attention to the value of biodiversity, the ceremony will also happen in other cities. Later this month, Berlin and Paris will hold similar events, and the next meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, in September in New York, have biodiversity as its theme.

According to Izabella, throughout the year 2010, the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment will promote actions to encourage the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources. The MMA's Executive Secretary explained that Brazil has invested considerable effort in the proposed adoption, at COP-10, of a special international regime for the sharing of benefits arising from biodiversity.

She also highlighted other efforts to reduce biodiversity loss, such as reducing the rate of deforestation in the Amazon and the extension of the monitoring of deforestation for the Caatinga and the Pampa biomes, and the announcement in 2010 of plans of action for the prevention and control of deforestation in the Cerrado and in the Pampa, similar to what is already done in the Amazon.

The secretary emphasized the importance of the concept of biodiversity for the construction of environmental citizenship and to promote the expansion of cities in a sustainable basis. "Entering the variable 'biodiversity' in the masters plans for the cities, we can create less vulnerable areas and prevent tragedies such as the one that occurred earlier this year in Angra dos Reis", she said.