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Save Biodiversity 05/07 - Update from Countdown 2010

In this Issue

^Dear Countdown 2010 Partners, dear Readers,

Welcome back in town! We sincerely hope that you had a relaxing, enriching and thouroughly enjoyable summer holiday and are full of energy to start your work to save biodiversity again. In this newsletter, you’ll read lots about what we have been up to in other parts of the world: Countdown 2010 has become a truly global initiative over the last six months. 

On the European front, we are currently preparing for two big events: Have a look at the Ministerial Conference Environment for Europe where Environmental Ministers from the Pan-European region meet for the first time since they committed to the 2010 biodiversity target in Kiev four years ago. A month later, the Portuguese Presidency is organizing a large conference on Business and Biodiversity as a kick-off for a larger platform on the issue. Things are moving on the way to 2010!

Enjoy reading!

Sebastian Winkler

Sebastian Winkler
Head of Countdown 2010
September 5, 2007

^ Feature: Global Action on Biodiversity

Biodiversity is everywhere: From the highest mountain to the deepest sea, from places inaccessible to humankind to the middle of our urban buzz. Some experience it through the beauty and tranquility nature provides, some directly depend on its treasures for food and medicine, and all of us need air and water – filtered and cleaned by nature. Biodiversity is global by nature. 

Over the last months, this importance has been emphasized by the international community: The 2010 biodiversity is now part of the Millennium Development Goals – as an intermediate step to ensuring environmental sustainability by 2015. Even the G8, this most elusive club of countries promise to “increase our efforts for the protection and sustainable use of biological diversity to achieve our agreed goal of significantly reducing the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010”, and propose an action agenda to go with it. 

In alliance with the Convention on Biological Diversity, Countdown 2010 welcomes these developments: The 2010 biodiversity target is a global target, and needs to be owned by all countries and regions alike. In order to achieve this, the initiative has reached out to five regions beyond Europe, consulted stakeholders and brought action on the 2010 biodiversity target to life. This newsletter presents a global view on Countdown 2010 – from the peaks of the Andes to the delta of the Mekong river.

^Countdown 2010 in South America

More than forty percent of all plant and animal species can be found in the bountiful ecosystems of South America. Yet, these riches are disappearing quickly: The regional Red List of Threatened Species comprises the only South American bear species, the andean bear and one of the world’s most powerful eagle species, the harpy eagle. The Amazon Rainforest – the largest track of rainforest worldwide – has lost a sixth of its extent since 1970. 

Regional stakeholders are very concerned, explains Arturo Mora of the IUCN Regional Office for South America: “Even when South America is the most biodiverse region of the world in terms of species, social conditions and economic inequity promote an unfair trade off between loss of natural habitats and loss of species, addressing the declination of livelihoods and affecting the poorest of the poorests.” 

Earlier this year, more than 200 people took part in a consultation on a regional Countdown 2010 hub. In order to achieve the 2010 biodiversity target, they felt, South America’s countries would need to raise the stakes for biodiversity, measure their progress and implement concrete projects. This month, Colombia and Bolivia signed the Countdown 2010 declaration. The other two member states of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), Peru and Ecuador, had joined earlier. 

^Countdown 2010 in Southern Africa 

All eyes were on Johannesburg, South Africa, when World Leaders decided to significantly reduce biodiversity loss by 2010. “This gives us a special responsibility to work on the 2010 biodiversity target”, explains Tabeth Chiuta, IUCN Regional Programme Coordinator. “We can show that good cooperation and simple interventions can really make a difference for biodiversity – and for people’s livelihoods.”  

People in Southern Africa rely on their natural resources: Most economic activity in the region comes from primary sectors of production. Ecosystem services like water purification and the maintenance of soil fertility are thus crucial for the region’s socio-economic development. 

Countdown 2010’s regional hub for Southern Africa works to improve the understanding of the 2010 biodiversity target and its link to livelihoods. A preliminary assessment of the progress in Southern Africa and the impacts of global drivers of biodiversity loss, including climate change, informs a joint implementing mechanism of governments and civil society in the region. The hub reaches out to national and local governments, civil society and the business community. 

In 2010, the eyes of the world will be on the region again when nations compete for the Football World Cup in South Africa. 

^Countdown 2010 in Eastern Europe

The North-West Russia Federal District is a priority region for the Countdown 2010 in Russia due to the close proximity to the European Union. The regions of Kaliningrad, Pskov, Leningrad, Karelia and Murmansk have common borders with EU countries. Important Bird Areas from this region are crucial for supporting bird’s populations wintering in Europe. Russian virgin forests are an important harbor for species that are rare in the intensively used boreal forests in Finland and Sweden (bear, wolf, flying squirrel, woodpeckers, insects). 

Due to the decline of agriculture, some bird species endangered in EU are very common in Russia (for example the corncrake Crex Crex). Recent development of oil and gas pipelines and export terminals, and routes of oil tankers carrying more than hundred million tons of oil per year, create new threats to the biodiversity of the region.

The IUCN office for Russia has partnered with the Baltic Fund for Nature and the Association of Zapovedniks and National Parks of the North-West to build a Countdown 2010 hub for Russia, focusing on the protection and monitoring of biodiversity on the territories of zapovedniks and national parks and the further development of regional networks of protected areas. 

The countries of the Southern Caucasus developed a plan of action until 2010 with the “Message from Gudauri” last year. Fifteen partners of Countdown 2010 are working together to implement it. 

The Balkan region will see its first big Countdown 2010 event with the ‘Environment for Europe’ conference in Belgrade next month. 

^Countdown 2010 in Asia

With two active Countdown 2010 hubs, Asia is the region with most Countdown 2010 partners outside Europe. Linked by one of the great rivers of this planet, the Mekong, China and the countries along the Lower Mekong (Cambodia, Lao and Viet Nam) share some environmental problems and developmental concerns, yet take very different approaches to the 2010 biodiversity target. 

Officially launched on Biodiversity Day this year, Countdown 2010 for the Lower Mekong has succeeded in stimulating discussions between government officials of the three countries on how to balance rapid growth and nature protection. They will be supported by twenty partner organisations, both from government agencies and the small civil society sector of the region. 

After a first consultation in May, the Countdown 2010 hub for China will go public this week with an impressive array of thirty partners ranging from international organisations, civil society and government institutions. Monitoring progress towards the 2010 biodiversity target will be one of the prime challenges, next to growing awareness of biodiversity with an increasingly affluent Chinese public. The hub collaborates with the EU-China Biodiversity Programme.

^Outlooks

Time is running out for biodiversity. The clock on the Countdown 2010 website keeps counting down the days until 2010. It’s not too late to move things – yet.

Next year, all 190 parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity will meet for a last time before 2010. This is the occasion to raise the stakes, and call upon all those that have not lived up to their promises so far. The international community needs to decide: How are they going to solve the crisis in our oceans? How can we help the planet cope with climate change? How can mankind reduce its ecological footprint? And how can we provide the resources and the knowledge needed to raise up to this challenge? 

Government's activities alone will not be sufficient to solve the biodiversity crisis. That’s why we’re excited that thousands of people from all backgrounds and walks of life will gather in Barcelona for the World Conservation Congress in October 2008 to work on solutions for a diverse and sustainable world. This momentum will be crucial for progress on the 2010 biodiversity target. 

^Do it yourself: Rate your country’s performance on biodiversity!

How is your country doing on its way to the 2010 biodiversity target? Countdown 2010's Readiness Assessment is a rapid analysis of the basic steps that countries have to take to meet the 2010 biodiversity target. It identifies whether countries have made public statements on the 2010 biodiversity target, whether they have assessed the requirements of meeting it and whether the necessary actions have been identified and implemented. The results of the assessment will be published during the 6th Ministerial Conference Environment for Europe, to be held in Belgrade in October. 

The Assessment will include data from a variety of sources, including desk studies and consultations. In addition to that, we would like to ask for your help and expertise. The Countdown 2010 Secretariat has prepared a short on-line questionnaire to this end. Please take three minutes and share your opinion with us! The answers give will form an integral part of our work.

^ State of Biodiversity: the Encyclopedia of Life

 “…to search for life, to understand it, and finally, above all: to conserve it. That is my wish.”- said E.O. Wilson, leading conservation biologist and researcher. The ‘Encylopedia of Life’, an online database of all known 1.8 million species will now help this vision come true. Today’s technology and decades of planning make it possible to unify the scattered knowledge of life on Earth in the ‘Encyclopedia of Life’.

The database will serve as a research and educational tool available to anyone, to “inspire the preservation of Earth’s biodiversity” and to help biodiversity literacy. The standard format will allow scientists and amateurs alike to contribute regularly to the encyclopedia, thus ensuring its constant evolution.

With the collaboration and support of leading scientific institutions, the MacArthur and Sloan Foundations the first pages of the encyclopedia are expected to be available online from mid 2008. The completion of the project will take approximately ten years, and even then, only species that we currently have names for will be presented. The rest (an estimated 30 million) will have to wait to be discovered and, hopefully to be preserved.

^Internal: New faces at Countdown 2010

Did we mention that Countdown 2010 is a growing initiative? This is why we are very pleased to introduce three new arrivals in the European Countdown 2010 Secretariat – and around. András Krolopp has joined the initiative in July as Deputy Head of Countdown 2010. Originally from Hungary, he will focus his energies on strengthening the relationships with partners, particularly from Central and Eastern Europe, and on building a solid financial base for Countdown 2010’s activities until 2010. He will also assist in strategic and management issues. Caterina Schwedt is about to join the team for a six-month internship. Caterina has just graduated in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics, and will help the team in event organization, communication and other issues. We are also very pleased to announce the arrival of Aurélien Winkler-Benoit, the newborn son of Sebastian Winkler and his wife Isabelle on September 3. 

^Focus on... National Park Thayatal

Two out of the six species of crayfish currently occuring in Austria, the broad-fingered crayfish [Astacus astacus] and the stone cancer or brook cancer [Austropotamobius torrentium] were originally found in Lower Austria. They probably populated most streams more or less densely. The main population of crayfish is located in the northern Waldviertel area, its probably most important retreat within the region.


Given its former extensive occurence, the endangerement of the crayfish has become particularly apparent. In Lower Austria the population is noted to be strongly receding. The broad-fingered crayfish is registered on the Red List of endangered species as threatened with extinction and is protected by European agreements like the Bern Convention and FFH Guidelines.

 As part of Countdown 2010 - Save Biodiversity, the National Park Thayatal is supporting the conservation of crayfish. A first evaluation of the size of the population and a characterisation of its favorite habitats in the National Park should contribute to ensuring the conservation of the local population as well as promoting its future dissemination. In Summer 2007 an exhibition in the National Park Center provided interesting facts on the subject of crayfish.

Upcoming Events

11-12 September
2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (Cambridge, United Kingdom)

11-15 September
EAZA Annual Conference 2007 (Warsaw, Poland)

24 September–13 October
International Seminar: Countdown 2010: people, protected areas and biodiversity conservation (Majella, Italy)

30 September–6 October
2. Congreso Latinoamericano de Parques Nacionales y otras Areas Protegidas
(Bariloche, Argentina)

10-12 October
Sixth Ministerial Conference Environment for Europe (Belgrade, Serbia)

12-13 November
EU Presidency Conference on European Business & Biodiversity (Lisbon, Portugal)

19-30 May 2008
9th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Bonn, Germany)

5-14 October 2008
World Conservation Congress (Barcelona, Spain)

News from Countdown 2010

31 August 2007 Colombia joins Countdown 2010

27 August 2007 The Lower Mekong grows with biodiversity

9 July 2007 Countdown 2010 launched in Russia

11 June 2007 Countdown 2010 Partners Assembly

More news

New Partners

Countdown 2010 would like to welcome its new partners:

You want to join as well? See here or speak to the Secretariat!

For more information please contact info@countdown2010.net or visit www.countdown2010.net

This newsletter is issued bi-monthly by Countdown 2010. We welcome comments and feedback to Wiebke Herding. Previous issues of this newsletter can be found at www.countdown2010.net/article/newsletter.

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