Happy New Year

All the best for 2010 (numerically, a much nicer year than 2009, I have to say). I'm sorry for being late with my greetings, posted as they are after 2% of the year has already passed.

IYB

This year has been designated by the UN as International Year of Biodiversity. The celebrations (if that's what we can call them) are coordinated by the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Almost every country in the world is a party to the CBD, the only exceptions being Andorra, the Holy See and the United States of America. Back in 2002, the CBD set targets for reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by the end of 2010. It's now clear that the global targets will not be met although there have been notable achievements in some areas.

So, the International Year of Biodiversity is not so much about celebrating achievements but more about raising awareness of the importance of biological diversity. Some celebration is justified and the IYB is also a focus for planning what to do next. A conference of the CBD partners will take place in Japan in October. One feature I particularly like is that the closing ceremony of the Countdown 2010 biodiversity programme will take place during the conference at 20h10 on 20/10.

What Can We Do?

The British Natural History Museum hosts the website www.biodiversityislife.net. Under the IYB logo, it suggests that children build a bug hotel in the garden to 'keep bugs snug over the winter'. At first sight this seems to offer little impact on the rate of biodiversity loss... especially true when 70% of global biodiversity is concentrated in only 17 countries (and the UK is not one of them). Surely we should focus our efforts on those 17 hotspots, or even the top five? But perhaps it's better to do something, however small, and a bug hotel is as good a place to start as anywhere. It's going to take some time.