Historic UNEP pact signed to protect global environment

Delegates from 193 countries today signed a landmark environemtnal protection pact at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) summit aimed at protecting threatened global ecosystems such as forests and coral reefs within 10 years.

The agreement follows nearly two weeks of talks in Nagoya in Japan and comes after the failure of climate change talks in Copenhagen last year.

The signatories agreed to take "effective and urgent" action to curb the destruction of nature and halt the loss of global biodiversity by committing to goals such as curbing pollution, protecting forests and coral reefs, setting aside areas of land and water for conservation, and managing fisheries sustainably.

In a landmark agreement, the signatories have committed to protecting 17 per cent of land and 10 per cent of ocean areas solely to enable biodiversity to thrive in those areas - up from 13 per cent of land and just one percent of oceans currently.

Terming the accord as an occassion to celebrate, Achim Steiner, executive director, UN Environment Programme, welcomed the concensus among rich and poor nations to sign the accord, which environmentalists say offers hope UN initiatives to mitigate the global environmental problems.

However, environment activists have expressed disappointment at the new targets, which they said were lowered at China's insistence and some other developing countries.