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2010 International Year of Biodiversity

 

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). With the slogan “Biodiversity is Life, Biodiversity is Our Life” countries throughout the world are celebrating the importance of biodiversity and promoting sustainable use of the environment. The main goals of IYB are to enhance public awareness of the importance of conserving biodiversity and of the underlying threats to biodiversity; raise awareness of the accomplishments to save biodiversity that have already been realized by communities and governments; promote innovative solutions to reduce threats to biodiversity; encourage individuals, organisations and governments to take immediate steps to halt biodiversity loss and start dialogue between stakeholders for steps to be taken in the post-2010 period.

 

For the Pacific, IYB presents an opportunity to raise awareness at all levels of the seriousness of biodiversity loss and its threats to the livelihoods of Pacific peoples. With the slogan “Value Pacific Island Biodiversity – It’s Our Life”, the Pacific focus on the IYB aimed to mobilise action to identify and address ways to advocate sustainable and environment friendly campaigns.

 

Countries in the Pacific are celebrating this year in a number of ways. In the form of media campaigns, awareness drives and festivities, these countries are telling the world that biodiversity is very important to Pacific Island communities. Sadly, although the region’s rich flora and fauna provide for most of its peoples livelihoods, Pacific Island biodiversity is being threatened by our own activities and careless behaviour.

 

Alarm bells are ringing and the warning signals are on. What will happen to our biodiversity in the next generation? What are we as Pacific Island Communities going to do about it? 2010 is the year that we celebrate Pacific Island biodiversity but at the same time we need to find ways to achieve better and more sustainable use of biodiversity now and in the future.

 

The key messages for the Year as outlined by the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity are:

 

a) Humans are part of nature’s rich diversity and have the power to protect or destroy it.
b) Biodiversity, the variety of life on earth, is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services our lives depend on.
c) Human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate. These losses are irreversible, impoverish us all and damage the life support system we rely on every day. But we can prevent them.
d) 2010 is the international year of biodiversity. Let’s reflect on our achievements to safeguard biodiversity and focus on the urgency of our challenge for the future. Now is the time to act.

 

The Pacfic Strategy

The Pacific Strategy for implementing the IYB aligns itself with these messages.

 

The Pacific Strategy, which was developed to guide Pacific input to the Year of Biodiversity, has identified three key objectives for the Year and SPREP is supporting countries in meeting these objectives:

 

1. To promote Pacific Biodiversity Value (ecosystem, cultural, economic) to Pacific Leaders, regional agencies and stakeholders and mobilise regional commitment and urgent action to sustainably manage Pacific biodiversity and natural resources for regional economic and human well-being;
2. To highlight the links between biodiversity protection and building resilience to impacts of climate change;

3. To promote and support National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) as the key tool for biodiversity conservation in the Pacific.

 

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