From Aol News
By MALCOLM FOSTER, AP
TOKYO -Representatives to a U.N. conference on biodiversity agreed early Saturday to expand protected areas on land and at sea in the hopes of slowing the rate of extinction of the world’s animals and plants and preventing further damage to its ecosystems.
After marathon negotiations that stretched hours past the designated time, delegates also managed to overcome divisions between rich and poor countries to agree to share access to and the benefits of genetic resources such as plants whose extracts have been developed into medicines — a key sticking point that had threatened to doom the entire two-week meeting in Nagoya, southwest of Tokyo. Read entire article on Aol News (Note, the United States is one of only 3 countries in the world not a member of this agreement.)