Following is a factfile on key points of a global treaty to protect the world's threatened ecosystems that was forged at a UN summit in the Japanese city of Nagoya on Saturday:
MISSION:
— Take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services.
KEY TARGETS TO BE REACHED BY 2020:
— At least 17 percent of land and 10 percent of coastal and marine areas are conserved.
— The extinction of known threatened species has been prevented and their conservation status, particularly of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained.
— Areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry are managed sustainably.
— Pollution, including from excess nutrients, has been brought to levels that are not detrimental to ecosystem function and biodiversity.
— Restoration of at least 15 per cent of degraded ecosystems.
— Invasive alien species and pathways are identified, priority species are controlled or eradicated, and measures are in place to manage pathways to prevent their introduction and establishment.
ACCESS AND BENEFITS SHARING PROTOCOL
— Establish a legally binding protocol that will allow the "fair and equitable" sharing of the benefits of genetic resources that are found mostly in the biodiverse-rich developing countries. Those resources, such as wild plants in rainforests, are often used by pharmaceutical, drug and other companies in developed countries to make huge profits.
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