Biodiversity Conference Opens in Japan

Delegates from more than 190 nations have opened a conference in Nagoya, Japan aimed at ensuring the survival of threatened species and ecosystems.The two-week meeting of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity aims to come up with 20 measurable global objectives for protecting biodiversity that could be met by the year 2020.The main obstacle to adoption of the so-called Nagoya Target is disagreement between rich and developing nations over what actions to take and who should pay for them.Scientists warn that unless people stop causing species to go extinct, the intricately interconnected natural will will be damaged with devastating consequences.That process continues even though world governments pledged eight years ago to curb the trends by 2010 – Voanews