Sprint needed to reach the 2010 target: 10th Countdown 2010 Advisory Board Meeting

10 November 2008, Brussels. 2010 is approaching rapidly and Countdown 2010 welcomes its Advisory Board to the second biannual meeting. Countdown 2010 16 Advisors praise the Countdown 2010 Secretariat achievements and stress the need for a final sprint to 2010. Coming close to the expiry of the 2010 biodiversity target, it is crucial to take stock of what Countdown 2010 has achieved to maximize efforts for the future.

The Advisory Board urges the Secretariat to continue working along the same lines to boost partners’ commitments to achieve the 2010 biodiversity target. It also recognizes the need to review the implementation of activities committed to by Countdown 2010 partners in view of the expiry of the 2010 biodiversity target. This review will help assess the impact of Countdown as mobilizing network too. We therefore once more call on our partners to provide us with an update on the implementation of their Countdown 2010 commitments. We are planning to collect and highlight some of the best implementation examples for the year 2010.

The Advisory Board also highlights the need for Countdown 2010 to continue its monitoring activity in relation to governments progress in relation to achieving the 2010 biodiversity target. As one of the three objectives of Countdown 2010, the Readiness Assessment is a valuable tool to measure countries’ progress towards the 2010 biodiversity target. The latest findings of the study were presented at the World Conservation Congress last October. The Board also underlines that the next phase of the study should include the EU countries and some representative developing countries. As to the methodology, a sectorial approach will help better identify the progress.

The minutes of the 10th Meeting of the Advisory Board are available upon request. You can request them from Nikola at office@countdown2010.net.