Countdown 2010 Partners gather to chart the way toward 2010 and beyond
More than 150 Countdown 2010 partners from business, civil society, science centers, local authorities and governments gathered in Bonn from across the globe on May 22nd, International Biodiversity Day, to chart a way forward toward 2010.
“This is a meeting were creative energy comes together to define the 2010 and beyond,” commented Sebastian Winkler, Head of the Countdown 2010 initiative. “If we wait for the formal negotiations to take place, we risk missing our target and concentrating on the process rather than substance. Instead, our intention is to connect stakeholders from different areas in a dialogue that will help drive the agenda on biodiversity. The outcomes of the Countdown 2010 Partners’ Assembly will enrich the formal negotiations under the CBD on defining the post 2010.”
Highlights
- Pavan Sukhdev (in the photo), Study leader of The Economics of Ecology and Biodiversity (TEEB) for the first time shared interim findings of the study, which highlights the cost of policy inaction and the urgency for increased focus on 2010. Business as usual, he argued, has brought a general decline in biodiversity that will not be reversed by markets alone. Appropriate institutional infrastructure, incentives, financing and governance are needed. Sukhdev also stressed the need for conservationists to adjust their point of view to reflect real money flows. “To make poverty history,” he concluded, “we must make biodiversity the future.”
- Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the CBD, invited the 2010 Partnership to assist CBD parties in fulfilling the Nagoya and post-Nagoya biodiversity targets. We are losing agricultural biodiversity at an alarming rate, he noted. It’s not enough for parties to adopt appropriate policies, he argued. We need to do business differently, the way forward must involve all stakeholders.
- Frank Vorhies, Earthmind , led the Business and Biodiversity workshop. Fiscal and regulatory regimes must be reorganized to support biodiversity, he suggested, by reviewing tax and subsidy systems; selling and marketing biodiversity; simplifying biodiversity language and messages for business; raising awareness of biodiversity opportunities among chief executives; and raising the appeal of biodiversity among consumers.
- In the 2010 Readiness Assessment working group, Neeraj Khera, TERI University, India, spoke about how to assist countries to assess their progress towards the 2010 targets. Indicators should focus on habitat and ecosystem monitoring rather than species only, she argued. Indicators should “tell us a story about where we stand and how to move forward.”
- Monica Zimmermann, ICLEI Local Government for Sustainability, and Elisa Calcaterra, IUCN, presented ideas to support the 2010 target in the Local and regional authorities working group. The need to improve effectiveness of communication tools, campaigns and awareness raising activities were suggested, as well as the need for “ambassadors for biodiversity” within local administrations.
- During the Countdown in the European Policy Setting – Towards 2010 and Beyond working group, Ladislav Miko, European Commission, Liz Redford, Planta Europa, and Sue Collins, Butterfly Conservation, discussed ways to communicate the urgency of the 2010 target. In order to secure the adoption of a post-2010 target at the high level, there is a need to improve stakeholder collaboration, increase publicity and address the business world and ask relevant groups to formulate their biodiversity targets so as to create a sense of ownership.
- Ignace Schops, winner of the 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize , closed the event by stressing the need to examine the impact our personal behaviours have on biodiversity.
Activity Awards
Countdown 2010 awarded prizes to partners in recognition of their work towards the 2010 biodiversity target.
First Prize
Cascais Natura was awarded the first prize.
Second Prize
The Directorate for Nature Management of Norway and the Herning Municipality, Denmark were awarded the second prize.
