According to a report presented by the United Nations during the opening of the COP8, most countries
are far away from this objective.
Actually, about 60% of the total 825 terrestrial ecoregions in the world have less than 10% of legally protected areas.
In 140 ecoregions (17%) less than 1% of their total area is legally protected.
With regard to marine and coastal
ecosystems
the situation is even worse,
only 0.6 – 1.4 % of their total area is legally protected until today.
Unfortunately, the situation in Brazil is no different from the global scenario.
Despite the
Amazon,
Brazil's largest
biome with about 11,7 % of its total area
effectively protected, in the other biomes
Caatinga,
Cerrado,
Atlantic
Rainforest
/ (
Mata Atlāntica),
Pantanal and Pampa
only 2 – 2.5 % of their total area is actually effectively protected.
Also, little results have been achieved regarding the creation
of a global network of
protected areas, bio-piracy or the fair sharing of benefits gained
through the exploitation of biodiversity resources to the poor countries
such as the protection of traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities.
The COP8 in Curitiba showed once more the complexity and diversity of the different
interests with regard to environmental issues, which probably is as high as the
biological diversity itself. Considering that there are only 4 years left to
achieve the 2010 targets, it is only to hope that the COP9 2008 in Germany will bring better results.
