Today, May 22nd 2007, is “International Day for Biological Diversity”.
As designated by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the theme of the day, this year, is to raise awareness of the link between Biodiversity and Climate Change. If you visit here, the Secretariat has provided resources (posters and videos) in six different languages, covering most of the global population, to help draw attention to this year’s theme.
According to a statement on the Secretariat website “climate change is already forcing biodiversity to adapt either through shifting habitat, changing life cycles, or the development of new physical traits. The recently extinct Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes) and Gastric Brooding Frog (Rheobatrachus silus) have already been labelled as the first victims of climate change.”
Given the importance of the climate change biodiversity link, the Secretariat concludes with four key aims that we should undertake on a global scale:
1. Conserve biodiversity that is especially sensitive to climate change.
2. Preserve habitats so as to facilitate the long-term adaptation of biodiversity.
3. Improve our understanding of climate change biodiversity linkages.
4. Fully integrate biodiversity considerations into mitigation and adaptation plans.