Chinese organizations start Countdown to save nature by 2010
Beijing, China, 7 September 2007 – As the rate of biodiversity loss accelerates worldwide, civil society organizations and governments are joining forces to fight the global extinction crisis. Today, twenty-one Chinese and international organizations in China signed the Countdown 2010 declaration, committing themselves to additional efforts to reduce biodiversity loss by the year 2010.
Recent assessments of Chinese biodiversity have found a large number of species in danger of extinction. Today organizations ranging from Global Village Beijing to the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences to the UN Development Programme – China joined together to declare their commitment to saving biodiversity in China, which is one of the world’s biologically richest countries. With this decision, they honor the global 2010 biodiversity target, a declaration made by state representatives at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 to significantly reduce biodiversity loss by 2010.
“Ecosystems should be seen as nature’s infrastructure and vital to human survival,” emphasized Dr. Seth Cook, IUCN China Programme Coordinator. “As we lose biodiversity we’re not only destroying valuable natural resources, but also the very systems that keep us alive.”
Countdown 2010 is a powerful network of active partners working together towards the 2010 biodiversity target. Each partner commits to additional efforts to tackle the causes of biodiversity loss. The secretariat – hosted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) – facilitates and encourages action, promotes the importance of the 2010 biodiversity target and assesses progress towards 2010.
For this global initiative with hubs in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, today marks the formal launch of the China regional network. “We’re excited to be bringing Countdown 2010 to China, one of the world’s greatest storehouses of biodiversity,” said Wiebke Herding, of the Countdown 2010 secretariat. “Countdown 2010 is starting with an impressive array of organizations here. I’m sure that by 2010 we’ll see the positive impact of this network on China’s biodiversity.”
At the launch of Countdown 2010 in China, IUCN Chief Scientist Jeffrey A. McNeely underscored the global importance of China’s unique natural heritage.
