Jessica Dempsey

Biodiversity Politics: Press Release

21 October, 2010 | Jessica Dempsey

Ottawa, Canada - October, 2010 - Today, Canada’s Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced the Government of Canada’s proposed policy on biodiversity. It will govern Canada’s negotiating principles for the 10th Conference of Parties (COP 10) under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) negotiations in Nagoya, Japan. “Effectively addressing global biodiversity loss requires strong, coordinated global action,” said Minister Prentice. “This means returning to the key principles and promises elaborated in the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, where the CBD was first signed.”

Published in: Biodiversity 36.6

Biodiversity Politics: The Good, the Bad and the 4 COPs

21 October, 2010 | Jessica Dempsey

CANADA WAS an active and enthusiastic negotiator in the early days of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It was the first industrialized country to ratify the CBD, and Montreal is home to the CBD’s secretariat.

But the warm internationalist glow has rapidly faded. “I sometimes find myself feeling sorry for the individuals on Canada’s delegation,” notes Pat Mooney, recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (the alternative Nobel Prize) and current executive director of the Ottawa-based ETC group. “They are nice people – serious professionals – but they find themselves playing the bad guy. From being the UN’s ‘honest broker,’ Canada has become the bête noire everybody loves to hate. Who killed Mike Pearson?”

Published in: Biodiversity 36.6
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