2010 - International Year of Biodiversity
On December 20, 2006 the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization in its Resolution 61/203 proclaimed 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). The purpose of the International Year is to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the consequences of its loss. It will also seek to promote the engagement of the public and other actors for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Year will also
celebrate successes in realising the target of achieving a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity
loss by 2010.
The Secretariat's primary objectives for the International Year are:
- To enhance public awareness on the importance of biodiversity and on the underlying threats to biodiversity, including climate change;
- To raise awareness of the accomplishments to date that communities and governments have achieved in efforts to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and its components and to promote the equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources as well as to raise awareness on
shortcomings in these efforts;
- For all individuals, organizations and governments to take the immediate steps needed to halt the loss of biodiversity;
- To promote innovative solutions to reduce these threats; and to start the dialogue among stakeholders for steps to be taken in post-2010 period.
Actions to accomplish these will be taken with a variety of target groups.
On December 19, 2008 the Assembly encouraged all memmer-countries to perform the obligations on the substantial reduction of pace of biodiversity losses by 2010 by means of paying the due cognisance to this vital problem in the appropriate strategies and programmes (Resolution 63/219). The Assembly recommended all member-countries to create national committees and all international organizations for the carrying out of International Year of Biodiversity.
In furtherance of the International Year of Biodiversity the high-level meeting to is be held in conjunction with the sixty-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2010 with the participation of the executive heads of the nations, governments and delegations. Solution to a problem of preservation of biological diversity requies the total participation. The world community, within the frames of the organized on a global basis activities, must join efforts for the provision of the stable future for the world.
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity plans to undertake to support all stakeholder who will celebrate the IYB, both those that are already under way, as well as those under development. The Convention on Biological Diversity which opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, entered into force at the end of 1993 and now has 193 Parties – is based on the premise that the world's diverse ecosystems purify the air and the water that are the basis of life, stabilize and moderate the Earth's climate, renew soil fertility, cycle nutrients and pollinate plants.
As expressed in the Strategy for the IYB, the primary objectives for the IYB are the following:
- Enhance public awareness on the importance of conserving biodiversity and on the underlying threats to biodiversity;
- Raise awareness of the accomplishments to save biodiversity that have already been realized by communities and governments;
- Call on individuals, organizations and governments to take the immediate steps needed to halt the loss of biodiversity;
- Promote innovative solutions to reduce these threats;
- Start the dialogue among stakeholders for the steps to be taken in the post-2010 period.
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