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Latest news from the Secretariat of the CBD
- International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2019: Acting Together to Achieving the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity will ensure that the children of today and tomorrow, along with their families and communities, can enjoy the benefits of nature and escape the trap of poverty and environmental degradation.
- Rural women are an indisputable force behind efforts to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity all over the world, and as such they are critical players in building climate resilience.
- This year, World Food Day calls for action across sectors to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone. It is a reminder that without healthy nature and biodiversity, we cannot have quality nutrition, and without quality nutrition we cannot have good health.
Why was the Convention on Biological Diversity established?
| Release date | 24/03/2006 |
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Our natural environment provides the basic conditions (oxygen, water, food, shelter, materials, etc.) without which we could not survive, and therefore biological resources are vital for the world's economic, social and cultural development.
In addition, the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries and adaptive responses to new challenges such as climate change.
Biological diversity is a global asset of tremendous value to present and future generations. At the same time, due to human activities, species and ecosystems are more threatened today than ever before in recorded history.
The growing concern over the unprecedented loss of biological diversity inspired negotiations for a legally-binding instrument aimed at reversing this alarming trend. As early as 1973, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) identified the "conservation of nature, wildlife and genetic resources as a priority area".
In the 1980’s, it became clear that existing environmental legislations and conservation programmes were not sufficient. In 1988, UNEP asked experts to explore the need for an international convention on biodiversity. Soon after, in May 1989, it established a working group of technical and legal experts to prepare an international legal instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
On 22 May 1992, in Nairobi (Kenya), the nations of the world adopted a draft for the Convention on Biological Diversity, the so-called "Nairobi Act". It was presented to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in June 1992. The definitive text of the Convention was signed on 5 June 1992 by more than 150 countries.