Human Impacts, Climate Change Pushing Species to Extinction

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel Monday urged governments to take stronger action to protect the diversity of life. Opening the largest UN biodiversity gathering yet, Gabriel warned that the world is not on the right path to protect the diversity of species and said the world would not reach its agreed target of the year 2010 for reversing biodiversity loss.

Nearly 7,000 participants from 191 countries opened the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity in Bonn on Monday. Before the meeting closes on May 30, participants are expected to take steps to conserve and sustainably manage the world’s biodiversity in light of what UN officials are calling “the alarming rate of loss of species, compounded by the pressures from climate change.”

Gabriel called for a clear roadmap, similar to the one on climate reached in Bali last December, toward a plan to establish an international set of rules for biodiversity that would govern the providing of access and equitable sharing of the benefits.

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Scientists call for protection of rare alpine fish species in religions shrines

Yunnan Province, a wildlife paradise in southwest China, is the native habitat of many alpine fishes, including some rare species never found anywhere else in the world today.

Due to a variety of reasons, either natural or anthropic, however, the natural endowment in biodiversity is now in peril, and many rare piscine species are at the brink of extinction.

Facing such a grim situation, scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS) Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) recently lodged an appeal, calling for energized efforts to preserve the pristine eco-systems for the survival of the endemic fishes in Buddhism temples of the region.

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Species loss ‘bad for our health’

A new generation of medical treatments could be lost forever unless the current rate of biodiversity loss is reversed, conservationists have warned.

They say species are being lost before researchers have had the chance to examine and understand their potential health benefits.

The findings appear in Sustaining Life, a book involving more than 100 experts.

It is being published ahead of a global summit in May that will look at ways to stem biodiversity loss by 2010.

“While extinction is alarming in its own right, the book demonstrates that many species can help human lives,” said co-author Jeffrey McNeely, chief scientist at IUCN (formerly known as the World Conservation Union).

“If we needed more justification for action to conserve species, it offers dozens of dramatic examples of both why and how citizens can act in ways that will conserve, rather than destroy, the species that enrich our lives.”

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Three new species of snouted beetle found in Thailand

A group of Thai entomologists announced the discovery of three previously unidentified new species of snout beetles in Thailand’s tropical forests—an indication of the biodiversity still to be discovered in Thai woodlands.

New to the world’s record of beetle species, the three newly discovered were named Articerodes thailandicus, Articerodes ohmumoi and Articerodes jariyae.

The first was named in honour of Thailand, the second recognising a distinguished entomologist from Japan and the third to grant historical honour to Khao Khitchakut, Chanthaburi province—the only habitat to shelter these species of snout beetle.

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