Biodiversity summit nears end

Western nations attending the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya appear to have given ground on the most contentious issue, the sharing of natural genetic resources, the BBC reported Friday.

The issue involves a protocol known as Access and Benefit-sharing, meant to ensure developing countries are compensated when products are made from genetic material of organisms from their territory.

Still being resolved is the issue of how much of the Earth's lands and oceans should be placed under protection.

Environmentalists have criticized China for its insistence that a Nagoya agreement should call for protecting just 6 percent of the marine environment, with no protection at all outside coastal waters.

The current global target for protection is 10 percent, the BBC said.

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