In its 83rd plenary meeting, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity and designated the secretariat of the CBD as the focal point. It invited Member States to establish national committees for the IYB, encouraged them to use the IYB to increase awareness of the importance of biodiversity. In this framework, throughout the year countless initiatives will be organized to:

• Enhance public knowledge of the threats to biodiversity and means to conserve it;

• Engage an increasing number of people;

• Celebrate the achievements by governments;

• Report on possible failures to achieve the Target;

• Use momentum to trigger even more action for biodiversity;

• Begin to communicate the post-2010 target(s).

• Raise awareness of the importance of conserving biodiversity for human well-being and promote understanding of the economic value of biodiversity.

The IYB of the United Nations was officially launched at a high-level event on January 11th in Berlin under the leadership of Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel. The event was co-organized by the CBD and the Government of Germany. On May 22nd, 2010, the world community will observe the International Day for Biological Diversity.

In Central Africa, the celebration of the IYB will be held through an international conference in Libreville (Gabon) on: "Bolstering Biodiversity in Africa: Everyone's Problem and Heritage". This conference will launch the debate on boosting awareness by promoting the introduction of a committee of the pan-African IPBES, the scientific Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services - the equivalent of the IPCC on climate.

At the end of this year (October 2010), the countries members of the Convention on Biological Diversity will gather in Nagoya, Japan (the CBD COP10 Presidency) to discuss performance against the target to slow declines in biodiversity by 2010 and formulate a possible successor. This event will be also the official closing ceremony of the UN International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) 2010.

View all upcoming IYB events listed on our website...

Adapted from the Countdown 2010 website, Official IYB website and Database of press releases related to Africa website