World Biodiversity Day: 22 May
Also known as the International Day for Biological Diversity, World Biodiversity Day was created in 1993 by the United Nations as an international day for the promotion of biodiversity issues. For its first 7 years, it was celebrated on December 29th, as the day that the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) went into effect. In 2000, the date was changed to May 22nd, to mark the day that the convention was adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.
Each year, a theme is selected by the Secretariat of the CBD to highlight a specific focus area relating to biodiversity. The theme of World Biodiversity day for 2008 is Biodiversity and Agriculture. In choosing this theme, the CBD “seeks to highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be able to feed the world, maintain agricultural livelihoods, and enhance human well being into the 21st century and beyond.” On May 22, events will take place throughout the world to highlight the vital linkages between biodiversity and agriculture.
For futher information on World Biodiversity Day and how others are celebrating it, see http://www.cbd.int/ibd/2008
LAB encourages all its participant cities to celebrate World Biodiversity Day through local action. Please let us know how your city celebrated World Biodiversity Day by emailing lab@iclei.org