The two-week conference aims to set targets for 2020 to slow or stop the alarming rate of extinction of plants, animals, and damage to ecosystems.

Brian Mulroney, past Prime Minister of Canada, signed the convention on behalf of Canada in 1992. At that time countries agreed to cut species loss "significantly" and preserve 10 per cent of the world's ecological regions by 2010. All countries, including Canada, have failed to meet obligations under the Treaty. Mass extinction continues apace at between 1,500 and 15,000 species a year.

"Missing the 2010 targets should inspire us all to do better. I do hope we will successfully negotiate a new protocol," said Canadian Minister of Environment Jim Prentice.

However, scientists and aboriginal groups have decryed Canada's negotiating tactics.

"Canada is playing a particularly obstructive role in those negotiations which could be disastrous for biodiversity globally," said British biologist Stuart Butchart, of Birdlife International.

"The Canadian government has been undermining the human rights of the world's indigenous peoples," said Paul Joffe representing the Grand Council of the Crees, a large indigenous nation in central Canada.

Japan meanwhile pledged $2 billion dollars in an attempt to spur the stalled negotiations. "We must stop this great extinction in our lifetime," said Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.