2-4 November 2010
Dublin, Ireland

The conference aims to:

- investigate how biodiversity policies and legislation including the Common Agricultural Policy, Fisheries Policy and the Marine and Coastal Access Bill) are affecting and driving biodiversity conservation;
– showcase biodiversity tools and methods available to ecologists; and
- review case studies of some of the more practical methods used in biodiversity projects.

Keynote speakers include:

Mairead McGuinness, MEP
John Cross, NPWS
Damon Stanwell-Smith, UNEP WCMC
John Finn, TEAGASC
Patricia Almeida-Villella MIEEM, Marine Management Organisation
Neil Wellum, Marine Management Organisation
Liam Lysaght, Director, National Biodiversity Data Centre
Matthew Jebb, Director of Dublin Botanical Gardens
Heather Thompson, Chief Executive, Ulster Wildlife Trust
Paul Wilkinson, Head of ‘A Living Landscape’, Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts

To view the full programme and to book you place, please visit the IEEM conference webpage.

The Guardian last week published an article by George Monbiot and Guillaume Chapron, a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, calling for readers to nominate key actions which can make a significant difference to halting biodiversity loss worldwide. The authors are seeking actions which ‘make a major contribution to protecting a particular species or ecosystem and that are ’strongly and widely supported by scientific evidence published in academic journals; but that are politically costly or opposed by special interest groups.’

Submit ideas to the Biodiversity100 campaign or see what others have suggested at the Guardian website. Readers have been given one month to submit their ideas, before the final list of 100 tasks, for presentation to G20 governments, is decided.

Four years ago the European Commission’s annual ‘Green Week’ conference examined the progress towards the target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010, carrying a positive “Biodiversity is Life!” strapline. Speaking for the UK’s Labour Government, the then Minister in charge of biodiversity, Barry Gardiner MP questioned the general public’s awareness of biodiversity loss, not to mention the apparent lack of understanding of what the term actually meant. Four years on, in the context of the International Year of Biodiversity, this year’s ‘Green Week’ fittingly brings biodiversity back into the spotlight. The conference provides a forum for a week of investigation into how to take the EU’s biodiversity policy forward post-2010.

Three days of discussion will address the pressing issues affecting Europe’s nature – what new policy responses are needed? How can the EU best value the remaining resource and measure the ecosystem services the continent’s nature provides? How can it properly maintain and expand its now long-established Natura 2000 network? 3,800 delegates from the public, charity, scientific, academic and business communities are joining representatives from the EU institutions to answer these questions.

Amongst the opening presentations was a speech by the European Environment Agency’s Executive Director Dr Jacqueline McGlade, who unveiled a new Biodiversity Information System for Europe (BISE), which centralises information about European biodiversity in a new web portal. Combined with the new Biodiversity Baseline, which provides a shapshot of the current state of biodiversity, the EEA and European Commission hope this partnership project will make the monitoring of progress towards renewed efforts to halt biodiversity loss a lot easier.

To catch up on the week’s activities, the Green Week 2010 website has details of the thirty sessions taking place, with video links to many of the proceedings.

Organisations around the UK are preparing to celebrate International Biodiversity Day, taking place tomorrow, 22 May. Celebrations began in Wales yesterday, with the start of a three day festival to highlight biodiversity to the public and to encourage individuals to ‘do one thing’ for nature. The BES and Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM) joined a range of organisations at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, for the launch of the event, exhibiting materials to museum visitors.

Jane Davidson, Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing at the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), delivered a speech to exhibitors and invited guests, in which she highlighted the Government’s track record in conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services in Wales. However, the Minister made it clear that the ecological community couldn’t underestimate the challenge of keeping in place some of the structures set up for species monitoring and conservation, given the difficult economic climate. However, the Minister assured the audience that she would do all she could to ensure that the importance of biodiversity is recognised across the WAG.

Both the Minister, and Rhys Jones, a BBC wildlife television presenter who gave a brief address after Jane Davidson’s speech, emphasised the importance of communicating the importance of biodiversity to the public at large. Rhys Jones said that ‘people look at biodiversity through giant binoculars’, understanding biodiversity as something that is ‘elsewhere’; on African plains or tropical rainforests. People do not appreciate the diversity of life around them; in their own back gardens for example. Jane Davidson emphasised the need to ‘keep the vision positive’, highlighting the challenges faced by biodiversity but in such a way as to engage, not alienate people, with the scale of the problem.

The BES and IEEM took the opportunity to launch a copy of our position statement on ‘halting UK biodiversity loss’, in Welsh. You can download a copy from our website.

International Biodiversity Day

Tomorrow, a range of activities will take place around the UK and around the globe, highlighting and raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity to our lives. The Natural History Museum, London, is organising a full day of events, including theatre and art performances and the production of a biodiversity day themed elephant for the ‘Elephant Parade’. The Guardian has today published its top ten picks of events from around the world. To find out more about events near you in the UK, access the International Year of Biodiversity UK network website.

The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, will next week host a celebration of the diversity of the Welsh natural environment. Beginning on Thursday, 20th May, with an event for policy-makers and invited guests, the event will then continue right through Saturday, the International Day for Biodiversity, with activities and events for the public.

The event will launch a partnership programme between over 20 organisations active in raising awareness about, and conserving, biodiversity in Wales. From charities to museums, wildlife trusts and colleges, partner organisations will be present at the event, aiming to increase awareness of the significance of safeguarding the amazing diversity of life on our planet and encourage others to pledge to ‘Do One Thing’ to help the cause.

Jane Davidson AM, Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing at the Welsh Assembly Government, will deliver a speech at the Museum on Thursday, stressing the importance of biodiversity as an essential element for our health and well-being, our economy and ultimately our lives.

The focus of the public events will be on highlighting what people can do on their own doorstep to prevent biodiversity loss, ultimately contributing to the world-wide target (through the Convention on Biological Diversity) to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss across the globe.

The BES and the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management will together display a stand at the event, highlighting to policy-makers our position statement on halting UK biodiversity loss and supplying material to members of the public interested in pursuing a career in ecology. Both organisations are members of the International Year of Biodiversity UK partnership.

Further information about the events and activities on offer is available from the website of the National Museum of Wales

A major UN report has warned that ongoing nature losses may push key ecosystems beyond “tipping points”, leading to drastic losses in biodiversity and accompanying ecosystem services.

The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) states that the poor will suffer the first and most severe impacts of change, but ultimately all societies and communities will suffer.

Such tipping points could include the rapid dieback of the Amazon forest, where deforestation, fire and climate change may interact to cause an ongoing cycle of forest loss and a shift to savanna-like vegetation. Whilst reductions in regional rainfall may only affect local agriculture, increased carbon emmisions will hit the global community.

The report continues to state that whilst ecosystem restoration will increasingly be needed, biodiversity and associated services of restored ecosystems remains below that of natural ecosystems, and some systems may be impossible to restore to the original states that economies or communities depended upon (as seen in the Grand Banks cod fishery). Preserving biodiversity and investing in resilient and diverse ecosystems may well present the best-value insurance policy yet devised.

Source: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010) Global Biodiversity Outlook 3.
Montréal, 94 pages. (http://gbo3.cbd.int/media/2721/gbo_en_web.pdf).

Ecosystem services are one of the BES’s policy priorities. You can read more about our activity on the issue here – http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/policy/ecosystem_services.php

The EU Environment Council reached an agreement on aims and ambitions for managing biodiversity loss across Europe on 15 March this year when it adopted the following conclusions:

“[The Council] AGREES on a long-term vision that by 2050 European Union biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides – its natural capital – are protected, valued and appropriately restored for biodiversity’s intrinsic value and for their essential contribution to human wellbeing and economic prosperity, and so that catastrophic changes caused by the loss of biodiversity are avoided;”

“For this vision to be achieved [the Council] AGREES further on a headline target of halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them in so far as feasible, while stepping up the EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss;”

These resolutions appeared on page three (paragraphs one and two) of the following document; “Council conclusions on biodiversity post-2010 – EU and global vision and targets and international access and burden sharing regime“.

These conclusions were later supported by the EU Council of Ministers, in the published conclusions of a meeting held on 25/26 March:

“There is an urgent need to reverse continuing trends of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. The European Council is committed to the long term biodiversity 2050 vision and the 2020 target set out in the Council’s conclusions of 15 March 2010.” (Page nine, paragraph 14).

The declaration of the EU target will no doubt inform discussions upon a formal successor to the target to slow biodiversity loss (to halt this decline in Europe), at the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting this October in Nagoya, Japan.

David Dickson, Director of SciDev.net, has written a very interesting piece on the network’s website, discussing the importance of effective science communication in stemming the loss of biodiversity. He states that scientists and others working to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change face ‘formidable challenges’ in presuading political leaders and the public to take action. In part, he says, the failure to tackle biodiversity loss effectively to date, missing the 2010 biodiversity target to achieve “a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss”, is due to poor communication on the part of scientists and the media.

Mr Dickson criticises the scientific community for poorly articulating the importance of biodiversity to decision-makers, relating it to people’s everyday lives and concerns. New targets agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Nagoya, Japan, in October this year, must be accompanied by a ’sophisticated communications strategy’ to avoid a continuation of this mistake. ‘Biodiversity’ as a term is itself flawed, he argues, lacking concreteness which could galvanise public support. In moving forwards, the piece argues, scientists should firm up the science behind an understanding of biodiversity and its importance and must embed this science in viable, sustainable, economic growth and development strategies. Media coverage must relate biodiversity to people’s concerns such as jobs, health and food.

The BES and Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management launched a position statement on halting UK biodiversity loss in October 2009. Read more here.

The UN International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) was officially launched today, with an opening ceremony held in Berlin. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen officially opened the IYB at 10.00am GMT.

Marking the launch of the IYB with a piece on the Guardian website today is Dr Bob Bloomfield, co-ordinator for the International Year of Biodiversity UK activities and network, of which the BES is a member. In his piece, Dr Bloomfield emphasises the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services to the health and well-being of the human population, particularly the poor. Drawing attention to the TEEB (The Economics and Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity) review, led by Pavan Sukhdev of the UN Environment Programme, Dr Bloomfield highlights the economic catastrophe which will befall society should destruction of the natural world result in a loss of fundamental ecosystem services; this would be of an order of magnitude greater than the global economic crisis.

Pavan Sukhdev was a guest speaker at a parliamentary reception in October 2009, organised by the BES and Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, at which both organisations launched a position statement on the role of science and professionalism in conserving biodiversity beyond 2010.

Signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity will gather in Nagoya, Japan, later this year to discuss performance against the target to slow declines in biodiversity by 2010 (the ‘2010 biodiversity target’) and formulate a successor. It’s widely acknowledged that countries have failed to meet this goal: robust action will therefore be needed to meet any targets developed for 2020.

The IYB-UK partnership is made up of over 200 organisations, drawn from diverse sectors, committed to using 2010 to make a difference for biodiversity conservation. You can find out more about the International Year of Biodiversity and IYB – UK at the IYB-UK website: www.biodiversityislife.net.

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and the International Year of Biodiversity UK Partnership (IYB-UK), including the BES, would like everyone to do one simple thing to preserve life on earth. With your help, it is easier than it sounds.

1) Make your New Year resolution for 2010 to do something to support biodiversity.

2) Choose a simple, fun pledge from the list on the International Year of Biodiversity UK website

Or, you may know something you want to do already.

3) On 1 January 2010 – or as soon as you can in 2010 – let people know what you’re doing: Tweet, email, Facebook or blog your pledge to inspire others to do something similar. Please include the link to www.biodiversityislife.net/?q=do-one-thing in your communication.

On Twitter you could begin your tweet by saying:

“I’m supporting biodiversity by [type your pledge in here and end with the following hashtag] #iyb”

OR

“Biodiversity is our life so I’m going to [type your pledge in here and end with the following hashtag] #iyb”

Together we can make a difference.