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Saturday, May 22, 2010

International Year of Biodivesity : Biodiversity is Life. International Day for Biological Diversity.

On this important day what is everyone doing about it?


Here are few web sites found in a quick survey.

The Natural History Museum: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10139906.stmhere  

You don't need much else to start finding out about IYB  but it might be interesting to see what other organisations are saying about it.

The Guardian  has featured it today with quite a full coverage of a new UN report on the economic value of natural services which we all take for granted and for free:  
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/21/un-biodiversity-economic-report 

The Guardian also highlights this International Day for Biological Diversity with its Top Ten world events:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/may/21/international-day-biological-diversity-events

The Telegraph by comparison has nothing I can see on the subject.

UK Government in the shape of DEFRA has a number of news items for May 21st which by coincidence put GM crop trials alongside the Ministerial visit to the Natural History Museum.
Here are some items from the DEFRA web site news service for 21st May:  

http://ww2.defra.gov.uk/

Biodiversity in the spotlight

This week the Secretary of State Caroline Spelman visited the newly opened Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum. The Centre will be a hub for amateur naturalists, enthusiasts and other societies to study British wildlife. The Secretary of State talked to staff, looked at the exhibits and discussed the range of work the Museum does to support Defra’s objectives. Read more...
Friday 21 May 2010

Defra approves GM potato trial

Following a public consultation, Defra has given approval to the Sainsbury Laboratory to conduct a research trial this year of GM potatoes. The research is on potatoes that have been genetically modified to resist late potato blight. Read more...
Friday 21 May 2010

Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP speech at the Angela Marmont Centre for Biodiversity, 20 May 2010

I’m delighted to be in a place that celebrates so obviously a natural world so vividly before us. Not just the dead and the extinct but also the huge variety of living species with which we share this planet. In the first ever International Year of Biodiversity I can think of few more fitting places for a new Secretary of State for the Environment to begin my conversation about the need to protect and promote that variety. Read more...
Thursday 20 May 2010


Strangely, I think, the Royal Society for Wildlife Trust has nothing specific to say about this Day for IYB but does feature its Biodiversity Accreditation Scheme:

Biodiversity Benchmark
Biodiversity Benchmark logoWill your organisation measure up to the Biodiversity Benchmark?

Find out more about this environmental management system and accreditation process.




I could go on all day and I'm sure it would throw up some curiosities  in how IYB is being covered. At least George Monbiot has written about it all and as usual  doesn't pull his punches!

Finally I should make the point that our Heart of the Levels Group has been featuring IYB at meetings so far in 2010.