Summertime for Biodiversity

4 August 2006, Brussels, Belgium. We were secretly hoping that you would spend August somewhere outside admiring nature’s many wonders. But now that you are here, looking for biodiversity on the web, we’ve got a couple of places to recommend:

• The recent Countdown 2010 Summertime Report shows activities and achievements of the initiative since Summer 2005.
• Elephants and Crocodiles, Minks and Owls and many other animals inhabit the Virtual Zoo of our partner, the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria. Each species is accompanied by pictures and a detailed description of habits and habitats.
• Bialowieza is a forest between Poland and Belarus, and one of the pilot projects for ecological networks crossing the borders of the European Union. The recent ‘Forest of hope’ appeal proposed a number of priorities for action.
• Analysing the value of biodiversity, the Institute for European Environmental Policy found ten case studies where the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services resulted in socio-economic costs, including financial losses.
• The César Manrique 2006 Prize has been awarded to our partner La Palma World Biosphere Reserve. The jury has emphasized its evolution as “a sustainable development model, to transfer to the rest of the Archipelago”. Congratulations!
• On the downside of things, WWF has recently published a study warning that Mediterranean tuna nears the brink of extinction
• Concluding that Earth is on the verge of a major biodiversity crisis, a number of renowned scientists called for the establishment of a global body to advise on species loss.
• Halfway through the implementation of the 6th EU’s Environmental Action Plan, a study of the Institute for European Environmental Policy concludes: ‘Progress to date is insufficient to achieve the overall objective of halting biodiversity decline by 2010, but serious efforts are being made to protect habitats and species on the ground through implementation of existing legislation. However, the measures proposed for the protection of the marine environment are disappointing and are not likely to achieve visible results before 2012.‘
• Wikipedia features a good description of the 2010 biodiversity target.
  And should you ever have wondered what the EU is doing to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity, you might be interested in this summary leaflet.