NAGOYA, Japan, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The European community almost thwarted a measure on biodiversity loss because of its stance on sharing genetic information, advocates in Japan said.
Delegates at a biodiversity conference in Japan last week agreed on measures to try to halt the loss of plant and animal species. A separate measure outlines a global strategy for sharing genetic material used in such sectors as the pharmaceutical industry.
The European Union, however, almost stopped the deal because it wanted to suspend some genetic sharing protocols under emergency conditions such as during a bird flu outbreak.
Greenpeace delegates at the conference in Nagoya, Japan, told the EUobserver that both deals came through because of back-door wrangling.
"Without a deal on access and benefit sharing of genetic material there wouldn't have been an agreement on anything else," Nathalie Rey with Greenpeace said. "There was a lot of frustration that the EU was holding everything back."
The non-governmental organization community, however, hailed the agreement as a milestone achievement for biodiversity.
Scientists estimate the Earth is losing species at the fastest rate since mass extinctions wiped out dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago.
