And more than half of the 8,688 species of animals and plants evaluated are suffering due to the conversion of their natural habitats into industrial farms and plantations, mainly to raise livestock and grow commodity crops for fuel or food..By comparison, only 19 per cent of these species are currently affected by climate change, they reported in a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.These threats, rather than climate change, "must be at the forefront of the conservation China umbrellas factory agenda," he said in a statement."Unless we tackle these problems now, many species may disappear by the time the full impacts of climate change really kicks in," said co-author James Watson.

Climate change has overshadowed more traditional conservation priorities over the last decade, siphoning limited resources away from more urgent needs, the authors argued. Earth, he pointed out, has now entered a "mass extinction event" in which species are disappearing 1,000 to 10,000 times more quickly than a century or two ago.A group of 43 top conservation experts, meanwhile, issued a public appeal recently to save the world’s dwindling terrestrial megafauna, from big cats to elephants to giant apes.Conservation budgets, the researchers argued, must reflect this reality.The provocative appeal in Nature — which elicited sharp reactions — comes a month before a crucial meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a policy-oriented umbrella grouping of governments, industry and NGOs that meets every three or four years.In an analysis of nearly 9,000 ‘threatened’ or ‘near-threatened’ species, scientists found that three-quarters are being over-exploited for commerce, recreation or subsistence."Addressing the old foes of overharvesting and agricultural activities are key to turning around the biodiversity extinction crisis," said lead author Sean Maxwell, a professor at the University of Queensland in Australia.Demand for meat and body parts, for example, have driven the Western gorilla and Chinese pangolin to near extinction, and pushed the Sumatran rhinoceros — prized in China for bogus medicines made from its horn — over the edge.The main driver of wildlife extinction is not climate change but humanity’s rapacious harvesting of species for food and trophies, along with our ever-expanding agricultural footprint, said researchers pleading for a reset of conservation priorities

Thapa emphasised the need to overcome the difficulties the organisation faced and expressed hope that the 19th SAARC Summit would be held in Islamabad as soon as possible.Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Ministers adviser on foreign policy Sartaj Aziz on Friday alleged that India, which boycotted the SAARC meeting in Islamabad, "impeded" the groupings process and "violated" the spirit of its Charter.He also reaffirmed Pakistans commitment to regional cooperation under the umbrella of SAARC for promoting welfare of the people of South Asia, improving their quality of life, economic progress, social uplift and cultural cooperation.Chaudhry emphasised that internal and bilateral problems of member states must not be allowed to affect the organisation and that 19th SAARC Summit should be held as soon as possible to put the whole SAARC process back on track.Aziz said he believed that the SAARC Secretariat could play an important role as catalyst to bring all the China umbrellas manufacturers member states together and ensure timely and effective implementation of programme and activities that would benefit the region.Thapa who hails from Nepal, is the 12th Secretary General of SAARC.Pakistan was looking forward to welcoming SAARC leaders for the 19th Summit in November but it was postponed when "India impeded the SAARC process and violated the spirit of the SAARC Charter", Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.

He will complete his tenure on February 28 after which Amjad Hussain Sial, former Special Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan is to take charge as the next Secretary General of SAARC.Aziz said that due to several impediments and challenges, SAARC has been unable to fulfill the vision that was laid out for it by its founding members.On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Syed Zulfiqar Gardezi, Additional Secretary (Asia Pacific) hosted a lunch for the Secretary General, which was attended by AmjadHussian Sial, Secretary General-elect of the SAARC."Pakistan remains committed to hosting the 19th SAARC Summit at Islamabad at the earliest so that the objectives of regional cooperation under the SAARC umbrella can be pursued more vigorously," FO quoted Aziz saying in the meeting.Thapa, who paid a farewell call on Aziz, also held a meeting with Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, who appreciated Thapas contributions to the SAARC process and reiterated Pakistans commitment to the SAARC objectives..Aziz said this during a meeting with outgoing South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Secretary General Arjun Bahadur Thapa who is on a visit to Pakistan