UN environmental legislation 'will help restore biodiversity'

The latest changes in environmental legislation for the United Nations (UN) will help restore biodiversity, it has been said.

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman has spoken out about the body's decision to create an international scheme to stop the loss of animal and plant species across the world.

The UN Environment Programme's Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aims to provide evidence to help determine what the growing threats are to the atmosphere and ways to tackle them.

It will also contain provisions on how each member state is to follow a framework on how to make changes to ecosystems through scientific co-operation with each other.

Ms Spelman said that this research will give "trusted, independent advice to governments and policy makers across the world".

Professor Bob Watson, chief scientific advisor for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs added that biodiversity is "essential to maintaining the ecosystems on which we all depend".

He stated that if animals and plant species continue to die off, then "we risk destabilising ecosystems which may have serious implications for human well-being".

Posted by Lauren Steadman