Institute of Biodiversity Conservation

The number of species on the planet that have been documented by scientists has risen to 1.9 million, according to the world’s most comprehensive catalogue of plants and animals.

The new figure has been boosted by 114,000 new species discovered since the catalogue was last compiled by Australian researchers three years ago – a 6.3% increase.

The report was hailed by the naturalist Sir David Attenborough as a “crucial reference point for all those who are acting to protect our planet for future generations”. It estimates there are 11 million species living on the planet.

Until today, there is little awareness of what ABS can contribute to development and poverty alleviation in Africa, and skills to harness this potential are insufficiently developed.

For example, many actors at the political administrative level are not aware of the development potential of ABS for Africa. There are barely any functioning national ABS regulations in place, and there are problems implementing them if regulations exist at all. There is minimal dialogue between stakeholders, as a result there is little awareness of their mutual interestes. There is hardly regional harmonization of approaches; inventories and information on the value of genetic resources are not available; and negotiastion skills are not sufficiently developed. These factors are hampering the capacity of the 53 states in the African Group to negotiate an international ABS regime and to implement national regulations to the benefit of the African people.

Five years ago a good news was heard around the world that a naturally caffeine-free coffee plant had been found growing wild in Ethiopia, heralding the prospect of a cup of freshly-ground arabica that will not keep you awake.

Scientists in Brazil have discovered three arabica coffee plants that do not produce caffeine in their leaves or beans among a batch of 6,000 wild specimens originally collected in the late 1980s.

The scientists believe the wild plants could be cultivated to produce their own caffeine-free beans, or could be cross-bred with other varieties of arabica coffee to introduce the natural caffeine-free trait into commercial crops.