The United Nations General Assembly declared 2010 International Year of Biological Diversity with the objective of raising more awareness of the problem of the continuous loss of biodiversity.

According to an International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) report published in 2009, there are more than 17,000 species of plants and animals in danger of extinction.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2010 as International Year of Biological Diversity with the objective of raising more awareness of the problem of the continuous loss of biodiversity.

The ecosystems provide essential services to human life thanks to biodiversity, but according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), published in 2005, 60% of these services are in decline. Part of this degradation is considered to be irreversible.

The communities that are most affected by ecological degradation are the most impoverifhed, given that they depend to a great extent on the services provided by the ecosystems.

It is necessary that we become aware of the role that biodiversity plays in all our lives in order to get more involved in its conservation and use it in a more sustainable and equitable way. We can all do something to help towards the conservation and recovery of the ecosystems.

Objectives

• To improve public awareness of the importance of safeguarding biological diversity and of the underlying threats to it.
• To increase awareness of the achievements that have already been made by communities and governments towards saving biological diversity.
• To encourage people, organisations and governments to take the necessary immediate measures to halt biodiversity loss.
• To promote innovative solutions to reduce the threats to biodiversity.
• To start the dialogue between the interested parties to decide the measures that should be adopted after 2010.

Who’s who in the IYB

The celebrations of the International Year of Biological Diversity are being arranged by the Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Biodiversity, the coordination centre for the International Year of Biological Diversity.

UNESCO is joining forces with the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in order to achieve the IYB’s objectives.

The Countdown 2010 initiative is a CBD partner and they are working together for the IYB. They already have an influential network of almost 1,000 members.