Inaugurated the International Year on Biodiversity
Parsi, 22 January 2010
The International Year of Biodiversity was inaugurated at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Halting the unprecedented erosion of biodiversity and raising awareness of the need to change our behaviour are urgent priorities. This was the unanimous conclusion of participants at the high-level event organized at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters on 21 and 22 January. As the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, declared in a video message, "we must not be discouraged by the outcomes of the UN Climate Change Conference last December in Copenhagen. Instead, evoking the destruction of natural habitats and accelerated biodiversity loss, we must change current trends. The future we choose for our planet is in our hands”. More than 100 national reports submitted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity confirmed that the rate at which we are losing biodiversity is unprecedented. However we must recognize that there have been some partial or regional successes, but we need to identify these successes and build upon them as we prepare the next strategic plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The International Year aims primarily to raise awareness on the need to protect life on Earth and to bridge the gap between science and policy makers on this issue. During the International Year of Biodiversity, national governments will seek to reach agreement on a new biodiversity target, to be decided at the Nagoya biodiversity summit.