Habitat loss threatens all our futures, world leaders warned

Biodiversity experts say mass extinction of wildlife is as big a danger as climate change

As a UN conference convenes to work out a new deal for protecting the planet's biodiversity, the focus falls on the nations that are not attending.

Amid the worst loss of life on Earth since the demise of the dinosaurs, the agenda at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh could hardly be more important, but the spirit of international collaboration appears to be as much at risk of extinction as the world's endangered wildlife. The United States has never signed up and Brazil is among a growing group of countries where new nationalist leaders are shifting away from global cooperation.