Xuefei Chen Axelsson
STOCKHOLM, Oct. 26(SCBR)—Sweden has a list of over 4000 plant and animal species, known as the red list, about half of them are considered endangered, according to a news letter from the Swedish government website on Friday.

“The preservation of biodiversity is a key part of Sweden’s nature conservation policy. Every aspect of biodiversity, from ecosystems to species and genetic variation, contributes to vital ecosystem services. The Government is working to ensure that the preservation of biodiversity is a natural component of all sectors that use land and water,” the letter said.

On 1 October, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Forest Agency released a report on the preservation of biodiversity in terrestrial environments in Sweden. This report is an important step forward, as this type of overall assessment has previously been lacking.

“Value of ecosystem services must be made more visible”, the letter called.

“Ecosystem services provide us with food and water purification, and make it possible to maintain the oxygen content of the air and the fertility of the soil. Ecosystems must also continue to function when the anticipated climate change and its effects on our environment occur,” it said.

The Ministry of the Environment is working on how ecosystem services’ value to society can be made more visible. This is part of the efforts to achieve the environmental objectives, in particular the interim target concerning the importance of biodiversity and the value of ecosystem services.

Sweden also has international commitments to strengthen and preserve biodiversity, which is a common resource that is independent of national borders.

Swedish environmental ministry has held a series of dialogue meetings on the subject in early 2012 to get opinions and exp eriences from those who have experiences in this field and asked them how to put ecosystem services into their activities.

Ecosystems and our planet’s plant and animal species do not recognise national borders. For this reason, efforts to preserve and make sustainable use of biodiversity need to be coordinated between countries. The UN’s eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11) is taking place in Hyderabad, India, on 8-19 October 2012.

20 targets are to be achieved by each country setting its own targets based on the plan and adapted to national conditions and needs. One important target set in Nagoya was to commence efforts to make the value of biodiversity, including the economic value of various ecosystem services, more visible.