Party Animals - the International Year of Biodiversity

Katherine Hamilton on February 22, 2010 Comment

It might be the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese calendar, but there are many more creatures to celebrate during the International Year of Biodiversity. Biodiversity was toasted with launch parties in Paris, Berlin, New York City (under a big blue whale in the museum of natural history), London, Beijing, Madrid and Canada (and here). Aside from a good party, what's the Year really doing for biodiversity? According to the multiple press releases from the events:

• raising awareness (move over climate change,* this is our year);
• inviting commitments to safeguard biodiversity, including new Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) targets;
• encouraging better communication about biodiversity;
• a biodiversity equivalent to the Stern Report (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, aka TEEB) and the IPCC (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, aka IPBES)

Good sentiments, but action? Ecosystem Marketplace will be following concrete developments throughout the year.

Ahmed Djoghlaf, the Executive Secretary of the CBD, reports that of 110 countries sending in reports on 2010 CBD targets (aiming for a significant reduction of the rate of biodiversity loss, promised in 1992), not a single country has met its goals. The US never even signed up - Clinton signed on in 1993 but the convention was never ratified by the Senate, and maybe it never will be - Mr. Djoghlaf isn't optimistic. The European Commission is already mulling over four options for 2020 biodiversity targets for the EU (here and here).

Meanwhile, WWF does its part in raising biodiversity awareness by listing the top 10 most threatened (and dare I say cute?) species in 2010, including their own logo, the giant panda, as well as: tiger, polar bear, Pacific walrus, leatherback turtle, bluefin tuna (OK, not so cute, but tasty), Magellanic penguin, mountain gorilla, monarch butterfly, and Javan rhinoceros.

*Except for the bit about a 1-degree C increase in temperature associated with a 10% loss of animal and plant species