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Delegates Deadlocked At UN Meeting To Protect Nature


Japan's Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto stands up after delivering a speech at the talks in Nagoya today.
Japan's Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto stands up after delivering a speech at the talks in Nagoya today.
UN talks aimed at sealing a global pact to protect the world's ecosystems remain deadlocked as the meeting in Nagoya, Japan, enters its final day today.

Environment officials from more than 190 countries have been holding two weeks of talks aimed at agreeing on 20 key goals to be achieved over the next decade to contain man's destruction of nature and save the world's rapidly diminishing biodiversity.

Delegates to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity have been able to agree on most, but not all, of the targets after participants failed to meet the previous goal -- set in 2002 -- of "significant reduction" in losses of biological diversity by 2010.

Developing nations were also refusing to sign up to the 2020 goals without agreement on a UN protocol that would give them a fairer share of profits made by companies, such as pharmaceutical firms, from their genetic resources.

The protocol could unlock billions of dollars for developing countries, where much of the world's natural riches remain.

compiled from agency reports

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