COP 11 biological diversity: “Eat less meat and intensify agricultural production”. This is the voice of hundreds of people from across 25 nations. “Over-fishing should be phased out”

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: “Eat less meat and intensify agricultural
production”. This is the voice of hundreds of people from across 25
nations. “Over-fishing should be phased out”.

World Wide Views on Biodiversity conducted a democratic deliberation
on biodiversity as part of the COP-11 being held in the city. It
gathered citizen views on international biodiversity policy issues and
disseminated them to policymakers involved in the Convention of
Biological Diversity (CBD).

About 3,000 people from 25 countries emphasised the need to protect
biodiversity. The survey however revealed that most people have “some
knowledge” of biodiversity. Their views ranged from the need to
protect coral reefs as a shared responsibility to declaration of more
protected areas in the high seas.

Citizens think most people in the world are seriously affected by
biodiversity loss and more participants from developing countries than
developed think that their country is affected. Establishment of new
protected areas should be given higher priority than economic aims,
they feel.