By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Balinese fishing grounds have just been protected to safeguard
stocks Governments must tackle the underlying causes of
biodiversity loss if they are to stem the rate at which
ecosystems and species are disappearing. That was one of the
conclusions of an inter-governmental workshop in London held in
preparation for October's UN biodiversity summit in Nagoya,
Japan. Delegates agreed that protecting nature would bring
economic benefits to nations and their citizens. Representatives
of 54 countries attended the UK-hosted meeting. The organisers
hope that securing agreement on fundamental issues now will keep
the October summit of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) free from the kind of divisions that dogged last month's
climate change summit in Copenhagen. The UK's Marine and Natural
Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said that despite the
weak Copenhagen outcome, there had been general agreement on the
need for strong international ac