Africa/Global: Biodiversity Conference Aims At Lower Extinction Rates

The Seventh Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity ended in Kuala Lumpur with environmental officials from 100 countries renewing their commitment to cut rates of extinction by 2010, issuing a declaration that some participants called vague and disappointing. The declaration stated the countries were determined to preserve ecosystems threatened by industrialization, logging, overfishing, and other commercial activities. The ministers also said they were "alarmed that biological diversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate as a result of human activity."