2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership

	News
The official launch of the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010BIP) took place on Thursday 12th July at UNESCO in Paris, during the second meeting of the Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Speakers included Monique Barbut (CEO of the Global Environment Facility), Ahmed Djoghlaf (Executive Secretary of the CBD), and Spencer Thomas (Government of Grenada). Neville Ash (UNEP-WCMC) presented on the project and its activities. The event was attended by some 60 delegates from around the world, and the project was very well received. The first phase of the 2010BIP will run from mid-2007 until mid-2010, and activities are now underway. The intention of the side-event was to raise awareness about the project among national government representatives and other participating organisations. Official press release on the launch of the 2010BIP The 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010BIP) has been successful in its application for funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Partnership will coordinate the delivery and communication of a suite of indicators measuring progress towards the "2010 target", agreed by the Convention on Biological Diversity and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Funds allocated by the GEF to the 2010BIP amount to over $3.6 million, and cover activities from late 2006 to late 2009, including establishing and maintenance of the Partnership, developing and delivering the range of indicators showing progress towards the 2010 target at a global scale, implementing a communications strategy, and increasing the capacity of national governments and regional organizations to develop and use biodiversity indicators in the context of the 2010 target. The 2010BIP, coordinated by UNEP-WCMC, has over forty Partners, including various UN agencies, IGOs, NGOs, scientific institutions, Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and representatives of national governments, who will be instrumental in the delivery and reporting of the indicators measuring progress towards 2010.

Biodiversity contributes directly and indirectly to human well-being. It is essential for the functioning of ecosystems and the sustained flow of benefits from ecosystems to individuals and societies. The loss of biodiversity contributes to worsening health, lower food security, increasing vulnerability, lower material wealth and worsening social relations

Human actions are fundamentally, and to a significant extent irreversibly, changing the diversity of life on Earth. Over the past few hundred years, humans have increased species extinction rates by as much as 1,000 times background rates that were typical over Earth’s history. Ecosystems are being transformed with unprecedented magnitude, the distribution of species on Earth is becoming more similar and genetic diversity has declined globally (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005).

The international community has committed “to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth by 2010”.

This 2010 Target was formally adopted by governments at the 6th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2002, and endorsed later that year at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Subsequently, a number of indicators were proposed to measure progress towards this target. These indicators are in the process of being developed by a wide range of organisations worldwide, and are at varying stages of development and availability.

The 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010BIP) will further develop and bring together these biodiversity indicators, allowing for a more comprehensive and consistent monitoring and assessment of global biodiversity. The Partnership will coordinate and support the regular delivery of biodiversity indicators into a range of decision-making processes, with a particular focus on the 2010 biodiversity target.

The Partnership links biodiversity indicators initiatives at national, regional and global scales and will contribute information to a number of international mechanisms and initiatives, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (and its various programmes of work), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Convention on Migratory Species, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and the Millennium Development Goals.

The 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership will continue to meet the needs of users at national and international levels for the best available information on biodiversity trends, and to explore the various ways in which the global indicators can be applied and communicated through to 2010 and beyond.