Cape Town — The world will miss its goal of slowing biodiversity loss by 2010, scientists meeting in Cape Town this week have warned. The target was set in 2003 by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

"It's very clear we are not going to meet the 2010 goal. Overall biodiversity loss is accelerating rather than slowing down," said Council for Scientific and Industrial Research fellow Bob Scholes, an organiser of the 2nd Diversitas conference on biodiversity science which opens in Cape Town tomorrow night. Diversitas is supported by the UN and promotes biodiversity research.

This week's conference will assemble 600 scientists from around the world to discuss ways of identifying which species to save, how to go about it, and the consequences of not taking action . The UN Environment Programme's executive director Achim Steiner, is expected to call for more science- based targets when he opens the meeting.

Many of the 32 indicators used to assess biodiversity loss for the 2010 target were flawed, and scientists were now trying to come up with better ways to gauge human impact on the environment.