WELLINGTON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand is joining its voice and influence with others in the international community to better protect biodiversity by joining the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage joined other political leaders at the event to discuss global biodiversity at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) High Level Segment in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt on Thursday.
"This declaration comes at a pivotal point for nature," Sage said, adding despite significant efforts, global biodiversity continues to decline.
New Zealand has started to develop a new national biodiversity strategy, she said.
"With many of New Zealand's native plants and wildlife found nowhere else in the world, we have an international responsibility to safeguard them for their own sake, and for present and future generations," the minister said.
The declaration focuses on the importance of mainstreaming biodiversity across relevant sectors of the economy, with a particular emphasis on energy and mining, infrastructure, and manufacturing and processing, as well as health.
"It was important to New Zealand that the declaration acknowledges the importance of circular economy principles to ensure less waste is created and more reuse is possible," said Sage.
The meeting of the parties to the Convention, which continues over the next two weeks, will establish a pathway towards the adoption in 2020 of a new global biodiversity plan.
