Michuki criticises 'donor fatigue'

By Peter Orengo

Environment Minister John Michuki has hit out at the international community, which he accused of showing no commitment to preserving biodiversity.

The minister, who led the Kenya delegation to the Nagoya Japan Biological Diversity Conference, said the diminishing international goodwill was denying developing nations the necessary resources to reverse the decline of biodiversity.

"The Global Biodiversity Outlook warns about the continued loss of the very basis for our life. The failure to meet the 2010 targets to significantly reduce biodiversity loss is a clear pointer to our collective failure as leaders," said Michuki, adding challenges of poverty and the impacts of climate change are bearing a great toll on some communities who are the custodians of the biodiversity.

The minister said Kenya was doing its part to conserve biodiversity, especially buoyed by the new Constitution, which affirms clean and healthy environment as a human right.

"It might be one of the few Constitutions in the world that mention the word biodiversity. We know that benefit sharing arising from the utilisation of biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge is, therefore, a key incentive for conservation and environmentally sustainable development," he added.

The delegation comprises Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, National Environment Management Authority and National Museums.

Resource mobilisation

Nature Kenya was also in the meeting and represented Kenya and Africa in the negotiations for the Resource Mobilisation Strategy to put forward the developing countries’ needs for new and additional resources.

After ten days of intense negotiations, the Summit made historic decisions to meet the unprecedented challenges of loss of biodiversity through climate change.

The meeting achieved its three goals, namely, adoption of a new ten-year Strategic Plan to guide efforts to save biodiversity, resource mobilisation strategy that provides the way forward to a substantial increase to current levels of official development assistance in support of biodiversity, and finally, the development of a new international protocol on access to and sharing of benefits from use of genetic resources of the planet.