France to host major forum on species loss

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2005

PARIS (AFP) — Proposals to counter the possible extinction by the end of the century of elephants, great apes, tigers and lions due to the encroachment by humans will be at the center of a major conference on biodiversity that opens in Paris Monday.

The forum, taking place at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) headquarters, will be attended by 1,200 researchers, environmentalists and decision-makers from some 30 countries.

The four-day conference was sketched by French President Jacques Chirac at a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Evian, France, in 2003 but will have no power of decision-making.

However it could act on the problem by proposing solutions, such as creating a world panel of biodiversity experts.

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