Thousands of species around the world are at risk from extinction due entirely to human activity. Officials gathering in Malaysia this week are looking at ways to slow the rate of species loss, curb global warning and promote greater protection for forests, river systems, oceans and mountains.

More than 2,000 mainly government delegates are gathering for the February 9-20 United Nations meeting, an event officially known as the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The CBD seeks ways to preserve global biodiversity ? jargon which basically means the variety of all life on Earth.

Following are some facts about biodiversity and the state of life on the planet. Scientists have named about 1.75 million species, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Many believe most species, including insects, plants and fungi, have not yet been identified and that there could be as many as 14 million ? but that is just a guess. Part of the problem is that there are a limited number of scientists who are qualified to identify species and most of them cannot spend all their time in the field. About 52,000 vertebrates ? animals with backbones such as mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and some fish - have been identified.

At the 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg, governments agreed to try to slow the pace of extinctions ? which is tricky to measure without precise or at least agreed-upon species numbers in place. According to the World Conservation Union?s 2002 Red List of Endangered Species, there are 11,167 species of animals and plants known to be threatened with extinction.

Its 2000 Red List estimated almost one in four mammal species and one in eight bird species are at some risk. Some scientists say the world is facing a sixth mass extinction ? the first since the end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago ? due entirely to human activity. The threats to biodiversity are many.

UNEP?s Global Environment Outlook (3) identifies the main threats as land conversion, climate change, pollution, the unsustainable harvesting of natural resources such as overfishing and commercial logging, and the spread of alien species.

One recent study said global warming could wipe out a quarter of all species of plants and animals on earth by 2050. Protected areas and their contribution to the preservation of biodiversity will be high on the CBD meeting agenda.

The broad target of setting aside 10 percent of the planet?s surface for protection, adopted at the World Parks Congress in Venezuela in 1992, has been surpassed over the past decade and now stands at around 12 percent.

Inclusion of private land where the environment is protected would add to that figure. But many such areas are so-called ?paper parks?, where poaching and logging are rampant. This is especially true in parts of Africa, where poverty, conflict and corruption are rife. Developing countries, home to most of the planet?s biodiversity, complain that after more than a decade of work on the CBD too much effort has been spent on species protection and too little on benefit sharing.

They want the Kuala Lumpur meeting to correct this imbalance. Indigenous people, many with cultures and religious beliefs intimately tied to their highly biodiverse homes, are intent on protecting their heritage and sharing in the benefits of any commercial exploitation. The protection of mountain ecosystems will also figure prominently in Kuala Lumpur.

According to UNEP, satellite imagery shows a significant loss of mountain forests and other vegetative cover over the past couple of decades due to inappropriate farming and livestock grazing in fragile areas.

The effects are often felt below the slopes as the removal of mountain vegetation causes aquifers, streams and wells to run drier, while farm run-off fouls freshwater resources.