This is the fifteenth International Day of Biodiversity!
On this day every year, we recall 168 nations signing the Convention on Biological Diversity at the United Nations “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.
This year’s theme, set each year by the United Nations, is Biodiversity for Sustainable Development.
On May 22, 2000, the world celebrated the first International Day for Biological Diversity. The date honors the day the first of 168 nations signed the Convention on Biological Diversity at the United Nations “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.
The Convention on Biological Diversity has seven major components, called “focal areas”:
- protect biodiversity
- promote sustainable use
- address threats to biodiversity
- maintain ecosystem integrity, including ensuring goods and services from biodiversity support human well-being
- protect traditional knowledge, innovation, and practice
- ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of geneticresources
- improve financial, human, scientific, technical, and technological capacity, especially in the developing world
International Day of Biodiversity