The Malaysian Environmental Non-Govermental Organisations (MENGO) grouping 18 NGOs expressed concern that species are dying out and natural habitat is being lost quicker now than 10 years ago, when the UN Convention on Biological Diversity came into force.

A total of 188 countries, except the United States and several smaller countries, signed the first global agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.

However, MENGO said further action was needed.

"Efforts are sill not sufficient. The situation in Malaysia mirrors what is happening in much of the world," it said in a statement.

Despite a national policy on biological diversity and other conservation policies in Malaysia, it noted that encroachment, conflicting land use, lack of enforcement and poor management of protected areas remained rampant.

Mangroves in the country have been reduced by more than 50 percent in the past two decades and leatherback turtles have disappeared from their nesting beaches in northeast Terengganu state, it said.

MENGO urged the upcoming 7th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP7) to act to reduce the rate of loss of biological diversity by 2010, a goal set in the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa.

More than 3,000 delegates representing governments, conservation groups, indigenous peoples' groups and civil society organizations will gather in Kuala Lumpur from Monday for COP7. A two-day ministerial meeting to be attended by some 60 ministers will begin February 18.

TERRA.WIRE