Countdown 2010: A global initiative goes local
8 October 2007, Gland, Switzerland. IUCN – The World Conservation Union and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability joined forces through the signing of an action oriented Memorandum of Understanding. “This document marks a milestone for an increased engagement between the constituency of conservation and local governments for advancing the 2010 biodiversity target on the ground. A global commitment needs local action”, said IUCN Director General, Julia Marton-Lefèvre.
In a decentralising world where most people now livein urban areas, it is a critical moment to insert the biodiversity agenda more pro-actively at the local level, said Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, Secretary General of ICLEI. In 2006, the ICLEI General Assembly – basically the global gathering of cities, towns and counties dedicated to sustainable development – took a bold stand to focus its attention on biodiversity. Since then IUCN’s Countdown 2010 initiative and ICLEI have established two pilot projects:
- Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB), which includes more than 20 major cities around the globe and
- a more European focused initiative on ‘Local and Regional Authorities for Biodiversity 2010’ (LARA 2010).
Both projects focus on the important role local and regional authorities (cities, regions, municipalities) play in nature conservation. They aim at establishing respective networks which will help to assure a coherent and improved approach of the local and regional level towards halting the loss of biodiversity.
The Memorandum signed today envisages cementing this ongoing collaboration into further developing and implementing biodiversity activities which will ultimately raise awareness and provide support to local and regional governments by providing them with appropriate tools and capacity building.
The next milestone for this partnership will be the 9th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention of Biological Diversity (May 2008, Bonn) where ICLEI in collaboration with IUCN and Countdown 2010 will organize a Municipal Conference to encourage the official recognition of the importance of local action for achieving the 2010 biodiversity target. The outcomes will then be taken to a next level of implementation and demonstrated to the conservation community at the 4th World Conservation Congress (October 2008, Barcelona) and to the world gathering of local governments at the next ICLEI General Assembly (June 2009, Edmonton).
