Meio Ambiente

Attending her first UN Conference on Biodiversity (COP 10), Brazil's Environment Minister, Izabella Teixeira, said the great challenge facing countries is to make the issues of biodiversity more visible and effective, taking in not only economic but also social and development aspects for nations. She spoke at an event held on October 25, at which the main points of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TTEB) report, dealing with the economic benefits of biodiversity, were discussed.

"It is important to reconcile development strategies and maintenance of biodiversity, taking in such issues as sustainable agriculture, food and energy security, and the usage of natural resources, such as subsalt", the minister said. 

"This will be the great challenge of this century. We have to remember that the basis of all this must be sustainability. I think TEEB may help to link all these themes in discussions of policymakers here", she said. 

Ms. Teixeira stressed the importance of knowing not only the price but the value of the economy generated by different environmental services provided by biodiversity. 

The TEEB report refers to the value of ecosystems and biodiversity to the economy, society and policy decisions. To date, six reports were made, the last one released on October 20, during the COP-10. The idea is that public policy, private companies, the production sector, governments and local and regional decision makers will make use of the data.

The minister also said that the TEEB Brazil is being prepared, and that the requirements for the adoption of these strategies in Brazil are already being analyzed. "Now we are preparing terms of reference for finalizing the deal. After the commitments are established at COP 10, we intend to develop a new national strategy based on TEEB as a reference for a new sustainable economy", the minister said.

Leaders and policymakers of megadiverse countries, of the European Union and other nations, representatives of NGOs, institutions and companies attended the event. Izabella Teixeira will spend the whole week in Nagoya.

TEEB can be found at www.teebweb.org.

RF