The more than 1,200 participants at a week-long conference on biodiversity in Paris launched an urgent appeal on Friday for action against the current rapid pace of species extinction. The appeal came in two declarations - one by the conference's scientists, the other by all the participants - recommending the establishment of an international group of experts with the authority to spur on governments, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The declaration issued by the scientists proposes that this group of experts include "intergovernmental elements". The statement by the conference as a whole demands that the 188 nations that signed the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (which did not include the United States) should be represented in the group.
