• Title: LIVE NATURE

• Subtitle: Concert for the 9th meeting of the COP to the Convention on Biological Diversity 2008
• Speaker: Federal Minister Sigmar Gabriel
• Occasion: Live Nature, Concert for the 9th meeting of the COP to the Convention on Biological Diversity 2008
• Date/Location: 19.05.2008, Bonn, Museumsmeile, 6:30 pm to 6:33 pm

Bärbel Dieckmann,
Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf,
COP 9 Delegates,
Musicians,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

A warm welcome to Germany and to Bonn for the 9th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, COP 9. I am delighted to see so many of you here in the Museumsgarten to enjoy with us this event to launch such important negotiations. I very much hope that this wonderful atmosphere will give us added inspiration for our negotiations, which will by no means be easy.

Why are we beginning with a concert?
Cultural and biological diversity share the same roots and are mutually dependent. For this reason, we have invited musicians from five continents to perform here. These artists represent a small section of the world's cultural diversity. For a common, socially equitable and ecologically sustainable future, such cultural diversity is as important as the conservation of biological diversity - the key topic of COP 9.

With this concert we hope to create a very special mood for our negotiations. In the past there have been concerts such as Live Aid and, last year, Live Earth for climate protection. The message being sent across the world has always been the same: We want to help, we are combining forces to support a cause, we are taking on responsibility and together we want to bring about positive change.

With Live Nature we want to raise awareness of nature’s precious treasures, which we are in the process of destroying. Music connects and music touches us all. Let yourselves be inspired, open your hearts and souls to the beauty of music and nature.

Without wanting to dramatise the situation, COP 9 is the last meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD before 2010. The global community is at a crossroads. We must use this meeting to adopt effective measures - in order to reverse the trend in the ongoing loss of biodiversity.

The meeting is not only about the often belittled protection of animals and plants. It is about the key question of how we can provide a growing world population with food, raw materials and medicines. The pace of biodiversity loss is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural rate of extinction. Conserving biological diversity is a matter of survival, particularly for the poorest of the poor. One billion people, for example, depend on fish as their source of protein. Overfishing of oceans has dramatic consequences for the survival of these people.

Everything is interlinked - today we can no longer view biological diversity, climate protection, global stability and security and economic growth as separate issues. And only by working together can we find ways to tackle these enormous challenges to the benefit of all.

To conclude, I would like to thank Bärbel Dieckmann and the city of Bonn for the excellent cooperation during the preparations for this event. Special thanks also to Deutsche Post World Net, to Krombacher, Deutsche Telekom, Bionade and Stadtwerke Bonn. This concert would not have been possible without their support.

I wish you a very enjoyable evening of musical diversity and a great deal of stimulating conversation. I hope you are looking forward as I am to some exciting days of lively discussions here in Bonn.