Yahoo News 10 May 10;
GENEVA (AFP) – The UN warned on Monday that "massive" loss in life-sustaining natural environments was likely to deepen to the point of being irreversible after global targets to cut the decline by this year were missed.
As a result of the degradation, the world is moving closer to several "tipping points" beyond which some ecosystems that play a part in natural processes such as climate or the food chain may be permanently damaged, a United Nations report said.
The third "Global Biodiversity Outlook" found that deforestation, pollution or overexploitation were damaging the productive capacity of the most vulnerable environments, including the Amazon rainforest, lakes and coral reefs.
"This report is saying that we are reaching the tipping point where the irreversible damage to the planet is going to be done unless we act urgently," Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, told journalists.
Djoghlaf argued that extinction rates for some animal or plant species were at a historic high, up to 1,000 times those seen before, even affecting crops and livestock.
The UN report was partly based on 110 national reports on steps taken to meet a 2002 pledge to "significantly reduce" or reverse the loss in biodiversity.
Djoghlaf told journalists: "There is not a single country in the world that has achieved these targets, we continue to lose biodioversity at unprecedented rate."
Three potential tipping points were identified.
Global climate, regional rainfall and loss of plant and animal species were harmed by continued deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, the report said.
Many freshwater lakes and rivers were becoming contaminated by algae, starving them of oxygen and killing off fish, affecting local livelihoods and recreation for local populations.
And coral reefs were collapsing due to the combined blow of more acid and warming oceans, as well as overfishing, the UN found.
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) director general Achim Steiner underlined the economic value and returns of "natural capital" and its role in ensuring the health of soil, oceans and the atmosphere.
"Humanity has fabricated the illusion that somehow we can get by without biodiversity or that it is somehow peripheral to the contemporary world," Steiner said.
"The truth is we need it more than ever on a planet of six billion heading to over nine billion people by 2050."
The report argued that biodiversity was a core concern for society that would help tackle poverty and improve health, meriting as much attention as the economic crisis for only a fraction of the cost of recent financial bailouts.
It advocated a new strategy to tackle the loss alongside more traditional steps such as the expansion of protected natural areas and pollution control.
They included attempts to regulate land consumption, fishing, increased trade and population growth or shifts, partly through a halt to "harmful" or "perverse" subsidies.
The issues raised by the report are due to be discussed at a UN biodiversity meeting in Japan in October.
World Governments Fail To Halt Biodiversity Loss
Janet Lawrence, PlanetArk 11 May 10;
World governments have failed to meet a 2010 target to halt biodiversity loss and action must be taken to preserve the species and ecosystems upon which human life depends, a United Nations report said on Monday.
In a move endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly, more than 190 countries committed in 2002 to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.
But the report said: "The diversity of living things on the planet continues to be eroded as a result of human activity."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "The consequences of this collective failure, if it is not quickly corrected, will be severe for us all."
Natural habitats in most parts of the world are shrinking and nearly a quarter of plant species are estimated to be threatened with extinction, said the Global Biodiversity Outlook-3 report.
Farmland bird populations in Europe have declined by on average 50 percent since 1980, 42 percent of the world's amphibian species are declining in numbers and crop and livestock genetic diversity is falling in farming.
The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) said the natural world provided services, such as fresh water, crop pollination and protection against natural disasters, worth trillions of dollars a year, but many economies failed to take this into account.
"Natural systems that support economies, lives and livelihoods across the planet are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse unless there is swift, radical and creative action to conserve and sustainably use the variety of life on Earth," it said.
It said restructuring of the global economy after the financial crisis provided an opportunity to introduce regulation and market incentives to help stem the losses.
FOOD, WATER, MEDICINE
The report said there had been significant progress in slowing the rate of loss for tropical forests and mangroves in some regions. But freshwater wetlands, sea ice habitats, salt marshes and coral reefs all showed serious decline.
"Business as usual is no longer an option if we are to avoid irreversible damage to the life-support systems of our planet," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which oversees international efforts to conserve species.
The report said climate change, pollution, habitat loss, overexploitation and invasive alien species were the five main drivers of biodiversity loss, and warned the provision of fresh water, food and medicine could be at risk.
The report, based on the work of 110 national reports, also highlighted areas where the 2010 target had prompted action.
It said more protected areas on land and in coastal waters had been created and conservation efforts had targeted some species. At least 31 bird species would have become extinct without them. Some 170 countries now had national action plans.
"This suggests that with adequate resources and political will, the tools exist for loss of biodiversity to be reduced at wider scales," it said.
An international meeting in Nagoya, Japan, in October will consider goals for the next decade.
Matt Walpole, of the UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Center, launching Monday's report, said: "On a global scale we are doing more than we ever have -- but it's not enough."
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Factbox: World must put economic value on biodiversity: UN
Reuters 10 May 10;
(Reuters) - The U.N. Environment Programme says the natural world provides services, such as fresh water and protection against natural disasters, worth trillions of dollars a year but many economies fail to take this into account.
In a report released on Monday, it said restructuring of the global economy after the financial crisis provided an opportunity to introduce regulation and market incentives to help stem biodiversity losses and conserve natural ecosystems.
Following are examples given by the UNEP:
* Planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam cost just over $1 million but saved annual expenditure on dyke maintenance of over $7 million.
* In Venezuela, investment in a national protected area is preventing sedimentation that would reduce farm earnings by about $3.5 million a year.
* In sub-Saharan Africa, invasive witchweed is responsible for annual maize losses of $7 billion.
* Annual losses as a result of deforestation and forest degradation equate to between $2 trillion and $4.5 trillion. These could be prevented with an investment of $45 billion.
* Sea grass, mangroves and salt marshes may be sequestering half of the world's carbon emissions from transport.
* Action to promote conservation and sustainable use of natural resources receives a tiny fraction of funding compared to promoting infrastructure and industrial development.
* Governments must make biodiversity a significant, mainstream factor in decisions across all departments.
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: "The arrogance of humanity is that somehow we imagine we can get by without biodiversity or that it is somehow peripheral.
"The truth is, we need it more than ever on a planet of six billion people heading to over nine billion by 2050."
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Nature loss 'to damage economies'
Richard Black BBC News 10 May 10;
The Earth's ongoing nature losses may soon begin to hit national economies, a major UN report has warned.
The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) says that some ecosystems may soon reach "tipping points" where they rapidly become less useful to humanity.
Such tipping points could include rapid dieback of forest, algal takeover of watercourses and mass coral reef death.
Last month, scientists confirmed that governments would not meet their target of curbing biodiversity loss by 2010.
"The news is not good," said Ahmed Djoglaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
"We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history - extinction rates may be up to 1,000 times higher than the historical background rate."
The global abundance of vertebrates - the group that includes mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish - fell by about one-third between 1970 and 2006, the UN says.
Seeing red
The 2010 target of significantly curbing the global rate of biodiversity loss was agreed at the Johannesburg summit in 2002.
It has been clear for a while that it would not be met.
But GBO-3 concludes that none of the 21 subsidiary targets set at the same time are being met either, at least not on a global basis.
These include measures such as curbing the rate of habitat loss and degradation, protecting at least 10% of the Earth's ecological regions, controlling the spread of invasive species and making sure that international trade does not take any species towards extinction.
No government submitting reports to the convention on biodiversity group claims to have completely met the 2010 target.
While progress is being made in some regions, the global failure means an ever-growing number of species are on the Red List of Threatened Species.
"Twenty-one percent of all known mammals, 30% of all known amphibians, 12% of all known birds (and)... 27% of reef-building corals assessed... are threatened with extinction," said Bill Jackson, deputy director general of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which maintains the Red List.
"If the world made equivalent losses in share prices, there would be a rapid response and widespread panic."
The relationship between nature loss and economic harm is much more than just figurative, the UN believes.
An ongoing project known as The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is attempting to quantify the monetary value of various services that nature provides for us.
These services include purifying water and air, protecting coasts from storms and maintaining wildlife for ecotourism.
The rationale is that when such services disappear or are degraded, they have to be replaced out of society's coffers.
TEEB has already calculated the annual loss of forests at $2-5 trillion, dwarfing costs of the banking crisis.
"Many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other lifeforms and their role in healthy and functioning ecosystems," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep).
"Humanity has fabricated the illusion that somehow we can get by without biodiversity, or that it is somehow peripheral to our contemporary world.
"The truth is we need it more than ever on a planet of six billion heading to over nine billion people by 2050."
The more that ecosystems become degraded, the UN says, the greater the risk that they will be pushed "over the edge" into a new stable state of much less utility to humankind.
For example, freshwater systems polluted with excess agricultural fertiliser will suffocate with algae, killing off fish and making water unfit for human consumption.
The launch of GBO-3 comes as governments begin two weeks of talks in Nairobi aimed at formulating new measures to tackle global biodiversity loss that can be adopted at October's Convention on Biological Diversity summit in Japan.
Q&A: Biodiversity
How is biodiversity threatened and what is done to protect it?
Sonia Van Gilder Cooke guardian.co.uk 6 Apr 10;
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth at all levels: from genes to species to ecosystems. An apple variety is an example of biodiversity; so is Siberian coastal tundra. Most of the time, though, biodiversity is spoken about in terms of species.
What are the benefits of biodiversity?
In two words: ecosystem services. Research has shown that diverse ecosystems are better at supplying amenities like food and clean water, and at recovering from shocks like hurricanes.
Biodiversity also means options. From medicines to technologies inspired by plants and animals, the natural world is a vast repository of potentially helpful information. This goes for food too. At the moment, humans eat about two dozen species of the thousands available. In the face of new diseases, pests, and weather patterns, cultivating a diverse portfolio of crops is the best way to ensure food security.
Is it threatened?
Many scientists believe the earth is undergoing a sixth great extinction event caused by humans. Extinction is natural, but scientists estimate the current pace outstrips the average rate by 100 to 1000%. About a third of assessed species worldwide are threatened with extinction in the wild. Ecosystem diversity is also vulnerable: Mediterranean-climate shrublands, for example, are more endangered than tropical rainforests.
How do we know biodiversity is decreasing?
Measuring biodiversity is difficult. Scientists don't know how many species exist (estimates vary from 5-30m), and of the 2m they've identified, only about 50,000 are monitored. To get a sense of how biodiversity is doing overall, conservationists have developed the Living Planet Index (LPI). It tracks the populations of 1,686 indicator species around the globe, much like a stock market index. Over the past 35 years, the index dropped 28%, suggesting biodiversity is not doing particularly well.
What are the main threats to biodiversity?
The greatest threat right now is habitat loss. Agriculture, grazing, and urban development divide and destroy terrestrial habitats. In the oceans, fishing trawlers scrape the sea floor while aquaculture eats up mangroves and other sensitive coastal regions.
Overexploitation for food, medicine, and materials also threatens biodiversity. Fishing has depleted 80% of wild stocks, while deforestation and bushmeat hunting in the tropics have pushed many forest species to the brink. The thriving illegal trade in wild plants and animals is second only to the drug trade in profits, according to Interpol.
What about pollution?
It's a problem. Hazards range from the invisible – pesticides and industrial waste poison rivers and accumulate in food chains – to the inedible: thousands of sea birds and turtles die every year from ingesting bits of plastic. Fertiliser and sewage run-off causes algae blooms and marine dead zones. The CO2 that drives global warming is a pollutant, acidifying the oceans and potentially dooming biologically rich coral reefs.
Is biodiversity at risk from fauna and flora, as well as humans?
Sometimes. Invasive species like the water hyacinth and asian carp have run roughshod after being transported to distant parts of the globe – native species are often no match for invasives in the competition for resources. On islands, where species have not evolved to cope with imported predators, invasives are as significant a danger to biodiversity as habitat destruction.
What about climate change?
Climate change will pose an increasing threat to biodiversity in coming decades. Conservationists set up the current global network of nature reserves with today's climate in mind. Plants and animals attempting to migrate with the changing conditions may find themselves in human territory with nowhere to go.
How can we better value biodiversity?
The UN has launched a global effort to calculate the value of biodiversity – from crop pollination to income from tourism – so it can factor into policy decisions. Biodiversity isn't always of tangible benefit to humans, despite being vital for clean water, air, food and other "services". Some say that its economic benefits are overblown, and that biological richness should be protected for its own sake. Economists, however, call that a benefit too: "existence value" – the comfort that comes from knowing biodiversity is there.
What organisations exist to protect biodiversity?
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a conservation giant, operating 1,300 projects in 40 countries worldwide. Another powerful independent, Conservation International, has pioneered the use of biodiversity hotspots – areas with many unique species at risk – as a way of deciding what to protect first.
The grandfather of nature conservation, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was founded in 1948 by a large group of governments and conservation organisations. The IUCN runs the red list of threatened species, the authoritative global database on the conservation status of species worldwide.
Several international treaties exist to protect biodiversity, including the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species and the Convention on Biological Diversity. This year marks the culmination of an IUCN initiative to slow biodiversity loss by 2010, and the UN has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity and 22 May the International Day for Biological Diversity . Celebrations, however, may be muted: despite the participation of governments and organisations worldwide, it's unlikely that biodiversity loss will be slowed by the end of the year.
New Vision Required to Stave Off Dramatic Biodiversity Loss, Says UN Report
UNEP 10 May 10; with links to pdf files of full reports and segments of the report.
Nairobi, 10 May 2010 - Natural systems that support economies, lives and livelihoods across the planet are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse unless there is swift, radical and creative action to conserve and sustainably use the variety of life on Earth.
This is one principal conclusion of a major new assessment of the current state of biodiversity and the implications of its continued loss for human well-being.
The third edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3), produced by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), confirms that the world has failed to meet its target to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.
The report is based on scientific assessments, national reports submitted by governments and a study on future scenarios for biodiversity. Subject to an extensive independent scientific review process, the publication of GBO-3 is one of the principal milestones of the UN's International Year of Biodiversity.
The Outlook will be a key input into discussions by world leaders and Heads of State at a special high level segment of the United Nations General Assembly on 22 September. Its conclusions will also be central to the negotiations by world governments at the Nagoya Biodiversity Summit in October.
The Outlook warns that massive further loss of biodiversity is becoming increasingly likely, and with it, a severe reduction of many essential services to human societies as several "tipping points" are approached, in which ecosystems shift to alternative, less productive states from which it may be difficult or impossible to recover.
Potential tipping points analyzed for GBO-3 include:
# The dieback of large areas of the Amazon forest, due to the interactions of climate change, deforestation and fires, with consequences for the global climate, regional rainfall and widespread species extinctions.
# The shift of many freshwater lakes and other inland water bodies to eutrophic or algae-dominated states, caused by the buildup of nutrients and leading to widespread fish kills and loss of recreational amenities.
# Multiple collapses of coral reef ecosystems, due to a combination of ocean acidification, warmer water leading to bleaching, overfishing and nutrient pollution; and threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of species directly dependent on coral reef resources.
The Outlook argues, however, that such outcomes are avoidable if effective and coordinated action is taken to reduce the multiple pressures being imposed on biodiversity. For example, urgent action is needed to reduce land-based pollution and destructive fishing practices that weaken coral reefs, and make them more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification.
The document notes that the linked challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change must be addressed by policymakers with equal priority and in close co-ordination, if the most severe impacts of each are to be avoided. Conserving biodiversity and the ecosystems it underpins can help to store more carbon, reducing further build-up of greenhouse gases; and people will be better able to adapt to unavoidable climate change if ecosystems are made more resilient with the easing of other pressures.
The Outlook outlines a possible new strategy for reducing biodiversity loss, learning the lessons from the failure to meet the 2010 target. It includes addressing the underlying causes or indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, such as patterns of consumption, the impacts of increased trade and demographic change. Ending harmful subsidies would also be an important step.
GBO-3 concludes that we can no longer see the continued loss of biodiversity as an issue separate from the core concerns of society. Realizing objectives such as tackling poverty and improving the health, wealth and security of present and future generations will be greatly strengthened if we finally give biodiversity the priority it deserves.
The Outlook points out that for a fraction of the money summoned up instantly by the world's governments in 2008-9 to avoid economic meltdown, we can avoid a much more serious and fundamental breakdown in the Earth's life support systems
In his foreword to GBO-3, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes: "To tackle the root causes of biodiversity loss, we must give it higher priority in all areas of decision-making and in all economic sectors."
"As this third Global Biodiversity Outlook makes clear, conserving biodiversity cannot be an afterthought once other objectives are addressed - it is the foundation on which many of these objectives are built."
"We need a new vision for biological diversity for a healthy planet and a sustainable future for humankind."
UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, adds that there have been key economic reasons why the 2010 biodiversity targets were not met.
"Many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other life-forms and their role in healthy and functioning ecosystems from forests and freshwaters to soils, oceans and even the atmosphere," observes Mr. Steiner.
"Many countries are beginning to factor natural capital into some areas of economic and social life with important returns, but this needs rapid and sustained scaling-up."
"Humanity has fabricated the illusion that somehow we can get by without biodiversity or that it is somehow peripheral to our contemporary world: the truth is we need it more than ever on a planet of six billion heading to over nine billion people by 2050."
The Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ahmed Djoghlaf, says: "The news is not good. We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history - extinction rates may be up to 1,000 times higher than the historical background rate."
"The assessment of the state of the world's biodiversity in 2010, as contained in GBO-3 based on the latest indicators, over 110 national reports submitted to the Convention Secretariat, and scenarios for the 21st Century should serve as a wake-up call for humanity. Business as usual is no longer an option if we are to avoid irreversible damage to the life-support systems of our planet."
"The Convention's new Strategic Plan, to be adopted at the 2010 Nagoya Biodiversity Summit must tackle the underlying causes of biodiversity loss. The linked challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change must be addressed with equal priority and close cooperation. Joint action is needed to implement the Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change and to Combat Desertification - the three conventions born of the 1992 Rio Conference. The Rio+20 Summit offers an opportunity to adopt a workplan to achieve this."
KEY FINDINGS:
Biodiversity in 2010
GBO-3 uses multiple lines of evidence to demonstrate that the target set by world governments in 2002, "to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level" , has not been met. Based on a special analysis of biodiversity indicators carried out by a panel of scientists, as well as peer-reviewed scientific literature and reports from national governments to the CBD, key findings include:
# None of the twenty-one subsidiary targets accompanying the overall 2010 biodiversity target can be said definitively to have been achieved globally, although some have been partially or locally achieved. Ten of fifteen headline indicators developed by the CBD show trends unfavorable for biodiversity.
# No government claims to have completely met the 2010 biodiversity target at the national level, and around one-fifth state explicitly that it has not been met.
# Species that have been assessed for extinction risk are on average moving closer to extinction, with amphibians facing the greatest risk and coral species deteriorating most rapidly.
# The abundance of vertebrate species, based on assessed populations, fell by nearly one-third on average between 1970 and 2006, and continues to fall globally, with especially severe declines in the tropics and among freshwater species.
# Natural habitats in most parts of the world continue to decline in extent and integrity, notably freshwater wetlands, sea-ice habitats, salt marshes, coral reefs, seagrass beds and shellfish reefs; although there has been significant progress in slowing the rate of loss of tropical forests and mangroves, in some regions.
# Crop and livestock genetic diversity continues to decline in agricultural systems. For example, more than sixty breeds of livestock are reported to have become extinct since 2000.
# The five principal pressures directly driving biodiversity loss (habitat change, over-exploitation, pollution, invasive alien species and climate change) are either constant or increasing in intensity.
# There has been significant progress in the increase of protected areas both on land and in coastal waters. However, 44% of terrestrial eco-regions (areas with a large proportion of shared species and habitat types), and 82% of marine eco-regions, fall below the target of 10% protection. The majority of sites judged to be of special importance to biodiversity also fall outside protected areas.
Biodiversity Futures for the 21st Century
Scientists from a wide range of disciplines came together as part of the preparation of GBO-3 to identify possible future outcomes for biodiversity during the current century, based on observed trends, models and experiments. Their principal conclusions include:
# Projections of the impact of global change on biodiversity show continuing and often accelerating species extinctions, loss of natural habitat, and changes in the distribution and abundance of species, species groups and biomes over the 21st Century.
# There is a high risk of dramatic biodiversity loss and accompanying degradation of a broad range of ecosystem services if the Earth system is pushed beyond certain thresholds or tipping points.
# Earlier assessments have underestimated the potential severity of biodiversity loss based on plausible scenarios, because the impacts of passing tipping points or thresholds of ecosystem change have not previously been taken into account.
# There are greateropportunities than identified in earlier assessments to address the biodiversity crisis while contributing to other social objectives; for example, by reducing the scale of climate change without large-scale deployment of biofuels and accompanying loss of natural habitats.
# Biodiversity and ecosystem changes could be prevented, significantly reduced or even reversed if strong action is applied urgently, comprehensively and appropriately, at international, national and local levels.
Towards a strategy for reducing biodiversity loss
GBO-3 sets out a number of elements that could be considered in a future strategy to reduce biodiversity loss, and avoid the worst impacts of the scenarios analyzed in the Outlook. It is likely to form the basis of discussion of the strategic plan currently being considered for the next decade of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and due to be agreed at the 10th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the CBD in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010. The elements include:
# Continued and intensified direct intervention to reduce loss of biodiversity, for example through expanding and strengthening protected areas, and programmes targeted at vulnerable species and habitats;
# Continued and intensified measures to reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity, such as preventing nutrient pollution, cutting off the pathways for introduction alien invasive species, and introducing more sustainable practices in fisheries, forestry and agriculture;
# Much greater efficiency in the use of land, energy, fresh water and materials to meet growing demand from a rising and more prosperous population;
# Use of market incentives, and avoidance of perverse subsidies, to minimize unsustainable resource use and wasteful consumption;
# Strategic planning to reconcile development with the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of the multiple services provided by the ecosystems it underpins;
# Restoration of ecosystems to safeguard essential services to human societies, while recognizing that protecting existing ecosystems is generally much more cost-effective than allowing them to degrade in the first place;
# Ensuring that the benefits arising from the use of and access to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, for example through the development of drugs and cosmetics, are equitably shared with the countries and cultures from which they are obtained;
# Communication, education and awareness-raising to ensure that as far as possible, everyone understands the value of biodiversity and what steps they can take to protect it, including through changes in personal consumption and behavior.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 (GBO-3) , like its two predecessors published in four-yearly intervals since 2002, results from a decision of the Conference of Parties to the CBD [see note 2 below]. It is the product of close collaboration between the Secretariat of the CBD and the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
The Outlook has been produced according to a transparent, rigorous process of review. Two separate drafts were made available for review via the Internet during 2009, and comments from some 200 reviewers were considered. The whole production has been supervised by an Advisory Group, and the second draft was subjected to scientific review by a panel comprising leading scientists from governments, inter-governmental bodies and non-governmental organizations. The principal sources on which GBO-3 is based include:
# An analysis of the current status and trends of biodiversity, carried out by the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, a network of organizations coordinated by UNEP-WCMC;
# A study of scenarios and models regarding biodiversity in the 21st Century, involving a wide range of scientists under the auspices of the Diversitas network and UNEP-WCMC. This study, "Biodiversity Scenarios: Projections of 21st Century Change in Biodiversity and Associated Ecosystem Services" has also been launched on 10 May and is available at www.cbd.int/gbo3;
# Some 500 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and assessments from inter-governmental and non-governmental bodies reviewed for the Outlook;
110 national reports on biodiversity submitted by governments to the CBD.
The publication of GBO-3 was enabled by financial contributions from Canada, the European Union, Germany, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as UNEP.
2. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entered into force in December 1993. The CBD is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits from utilization of genetic resources. With 193 Parties, the Convention has near universal participation among countries committed to preserving life on Earth. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety a supplementary treaty to the Convention seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. To date, 157 countries and the European Community are party to the Protocol. The Secretariat of the Convention and its Cartagena Protocol is located in Montreal. www.cbd.int/
3. 2010 International Year of Biodiversity The United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) to raise awareness about the crucial importance of biodiversity, to communicate the human costs of biodiversity loss, and to engage people, particularly youth, throughout the world in the fight to protect all life on Earth. Initiatives will be organized throughout the year to disseminate information, promote the protection of biodiversity and encourage countries, organizations, and individuals to take direct action to reduce biodiversity loss. The focal point for the year is the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. www.cbd.int/2010/welcome/
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