2 February

• February 2nd is World Wetlands Day
  The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Secretariat to the World Heritage Convention, wishes to extend its best wishes to the Secretariat for the Ramsar Convention (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance) on World Wetlands Day, celebrating the 39th anniversary of the its adoption. Like the World Heritage Convention, the Ramsar Convention is a site-based intergovernmental treaty which encourages countries to identify and manage specific places so that their values and benefits are protected for future generations. It is the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem.
  More information: http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/585/

25 January

• UNESCO and Convention on Biological Diversity - The vital challenge of preserving biodiversity
  Halting the unprecedented erosion of biodiversity and raising awareness of the need to change our behaviour are urgent priorities. This was the unanimous conclusion of participants at the high level event organized at UNESCO Headquarters on 21 and 22 January. The Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, declared in a video message at the opening of the meeting that ”We must not be discouraged by the outcomes” of the UN Climate Change Conference last December in Copenhagen. Instead, she said, evoking the destruction of natural habitats and accelerated biodiversity loss, “we must change current trends. […] The future we choose for our planet is in our hands.”
  More information: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/preserving_biodiversity_a_vital_challenge/back/18276/

21 January

• Why Species Matther
  An ancient Chinese legend tells the story of a beautiful princess who refused to marry a man she didn’t love. As punishment, her family drowned her in the Yangtze, where she was reincarnated as a baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer). When the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held their first meeting in 1993, the dolphin was listed as endangered, despite millions of years of evolution and a deeply-rooted connection to Chinese culture. Today, the iconic species is thought to be extinct.
  More information: http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/
  why_species_matter_CBD_year_of_biodiversity.aspx

• Inspiring Greater Engagement in Biodiversity Issues
  One hundred years ago, Jean Henri Dunant, the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, passed away. A native son of Geneva, his work and ideas were the original driving force behind the creation of the Geneva Conventions, which remain so central to our contemporary vision of human dignity and rights. Through Dunant and like-minded spirits, Geneva was birth place of some of the central pillars of the modern humanitarian ideal. The dramatic impacts of the unprecedented loss of biodiversity compounded by climate change will become more and more at the core of the humanitarian assistance...
  More information: http://www.cbd.int/doc/speech/2010/sp-2010-01-20-geneva-en.pdf

20 January

• Informal Expert Workshop on the Updating of the Strategic Plan of the Convention for the Post-2010 Period
  Despite the significant progress achieved, we have failed to fulfil the promise to substantially reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity adopted eight years ago by the 110 Heads of State and Government attending the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. The Strömstad meeting of the European Union held in September last year confirmed the Athens message that the European Union will not meet its 2010 biodiversity target. A similar conclusion was reached at the Kobe Biodiversity Dialogue as well as at the First ASEAN Biodiversity Conference held in Singapore in October last year. The more than 100 national reports received so far from Parties have demonstrated that we continue to lose biodiversity at an unprecedented rate.
  More information: http://www.cbd.int/doc/speech/2010/sp-2010-01-18-london-en.pdf

19 January

• Los Estados Unidos designan el llano aluvial del río Mississippi
  El Gobierno de los Estados Unidos de América ha designado su 26º Humedal de Importancia Internacional, elHumedal del llano aluvial del río Mississippi Superior (22.357 hectáreas, 43°03’N 091°10’W). Según el resumen efectuado por la funcionaria de Ramsar Nadia Castro a partir de la ficha informativa de Ramsar, las aguas estancadas de llano aluvial natural del Mississippi superior (Medio Oeste superior estadounidense) fueron ampliadas y mejoradas mediante la construcción de compuertas y represas en el decenio de 1930 para mejorar la navegación comercial y recreativa. Hoy en día, el sitio, que discurre por cuatro Estados del Medio Oeste septentrional -- Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa e Illinois – consiste fundamentalmente en hábitat de canales principal y secundarios que fluyen, grandes pantanos de aguas estancadas poco profundas a moderadamente profundas, bosques de llanura aluvial inundados y comunidades en las que predominan los arbustos..
  More information: http://www.ramsar.org/cda/ramsar/display/main/main.jsp?zn=ramsar&cp=1-26-45-437^24318_4000_0__

18 January

• Brazil names rainforest lake system for Ramsar List
  The government of Brazil has designated Rio Doce State Park (Parque Estadual do Rio Doce) (35,973 hectares, 19º38’S 042º32’W) as its 10th Wetland of International Importance. Ramsar Assistant Advisor Nadia Castro summarizes that the site, located in the southeastern region of Brazil, is the largest vegetation fragment of the endangered Atlantic Rain Forest in Minas Gerais State. In addition to permanent and seasonal rivers, there are 42 natural lakes that represent 6% of the park surface.
  More information: http://www.ramsar.org/cda/ramsar/display/main/main.jsp?zn=ramsar&cp=1-26-45-437^24311_4000_0__

15 January

• Boosting Biodiversity Can Boost Global Economy
  A new and more intelligent pact between humanity and the Earth's economically-important life-support systems is urgently needed in 2010, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said today. Speaking at the launch of the UN's International Year of Biodiversity in Berlin today, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP's Executive Director Achim Steiner said that an unprecedented scientific, economic, political and public awareness effort was needed to reverse-and to stop- the loss of the planet's natural assets. These losses include its biodiversity such as animal and plant species and the planet's ecosystems and their multi-trillion dollar services arising from forests and freshwater to soils and coral reefs.
  More information: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/
  Default.asp?DocumentID=608&ArticleID=6441&l=en