The year 2010 has been de­clared the In­ter­na­tion­al Year of Bio­di­ver­si­ty (IYB) by the Unit­ed Na­tions. It is the oc­ca­sion on which the di­ver­si­ty of life on Earth, in­clud­ing every plant, an­i­mal and mi­cro-or­gan­ism, is be­ing ob­served. The slo­gan for year-long ac­tiv­i­ties is: "Bio­di­ver­si­ty is life. Bio­di­ver­si­ty is our life!" In T&T, the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) will be en­gaged in ac­tiv­i­ties to draw the con­nec­tion be­tween bio­di­ver­si­ty and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment.

The EMA's strat­e­gy over the com­ing 12 months will be to im­press up­on the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty the vi­tal link be­tween the pro­mo­tion of sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment and the main­te­nance of the coun­try's unique bio­di­ver­si­ty. These ac­tiv­i­ties are in sup­port of the coun­try's oblig­a­tions un­der the Con­ven­tion on Bi­o­log­i­cal Di­ver­si­ty to pro­mote the con­ser­va­tion of bi­o­log­i­cal di­ver­si­ty, en­cour­age the sus­tain­able use of its com­po­nents and en­cour­age the fair and eq­ui­table shar­ing of the ben­e­fits aris­ing out of the util­i­sa­tion of ge­net­ic re­sources.

To cel­e­brate the oc­ca­sion and to raise pub­lic aware­ness of bio­di­ver­si­ty's con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment, the EMA has launched an IYB-themed cal­en­dar and di­ary. The 12 themes pro­mot­ed from Jan­u­ary to De­cem­ber are Species Di­ver­si­ty; Cul­tur­al Di­ver­si­ty and Sus­tain­able Liveli­hoods; Agri­cul­tur­al Di­ver­si­ty; the Pro­tec­tion of Rivers & Beach­es; Threat­ened Species; In­va­sive Alien Species; Coastal & Ma­rine Habi­tats; Eco-Tourism; Ter­res­tri­al Bio­di­ver­si­ty; Moun­tains; Hor­ti­cul­tur­al Bio­di­ver­si­ty and Pro­tect­ed Ar­eas.

Each month of the cal­en­dar will be avail­able for free down­load from the first day of each month from the EMA's Web site at: www.ema.co.tt. The im­ages and in­for­ma­tion shared of­fer an op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn more about the rich ta­pes­try of life that ex­ists in T&T and to dis­cov­er the im­por­tance of hav­ing healthy eco-sys­tems. The EMA plays a key role in is­land bio­di­ver­si­ty and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment through the des­ig­na­tion of En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Species and Ar­eas (ES­SAs); the co­or­di­na­tion and fa­cil­i­ta­tion of ca­pac­i­ty build­ing with stake­hold­ers; com­mis­sion­ing of stud­ies for re­search and man­age­ment plan­ning; and, en­hanc­ing pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion and aware­ness.

did you know?

The Gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of T&T rat­i­fied the Con­ven­tion on Bi­o­log­i­cal Di­ver­si­ty (CBD) on Au­gust 1, 1996, and as Par­ty to the CBD, T&T will ob­serve IYB in 2010. In April 2002, the Par­ties to the Con­ven­tion com­mit­ted them­selves to the 2010 tar­get 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. Bio­di­ver­si­ty is the term used to de­scribe the va­ri­ety of life on Earth.

It in­cludes every plant and an­i­mal as well as mi­cro-or­gan­isms such as bac­te­ria and virus­es. Sci­en­tists have iden­ti­fied less than two mil­lion species so far but es­ti­mate there could be at least 13 mil­lion species in to­tal. There are hun­dreds of ways you can ap­pre­ci­ate and help con­serve bio­di­ver­si­ty, from learn­ing about your lo­cal wildlife or en­cour­ag­ing birds, frogs and but­ter­flies in­to your gar­den, to tak­ing part in a na­tion­al wildlife project or giv­ing a do­na­tion to a con­ser­va­tion char­i­ty.