2010 Biodiversity Target

2010 Biodiversity Target // Commitments
Tuesday // 12.8.2009

Who is Committed?

All of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have committed themselves to achieving the 2010 Biodiversity Target, and its commitments go beyond as an all-inclusive global target. Some major events before and after its adoption by the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in April 2002 are described below:

  • At the Gothenburg Summit in June 2001, leaders of the European Union launched the first EU Sustainable Development Strategy, which addresses as a headline objective for a more responsible natural resources management "…to protect and restore habitats and natural systems and halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010…".

  • In 2003, environment ministers and heads of delegation from 51 countries serviced by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) adopted the Kyiv Resolution on Biodiversity at the fifth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” and decided to "...reinforce our objective to halt the loss of biological diversity at all levels by the year 2010...".

  • The Secretariat of the CBD, in partnership with United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre and United Nations Development Programme, convened an international meeting on "2010 – The Global Biodiversity Challenge" (London, UK, 21 - 23 May 2003). The meeting brought together some 150 participants, including Government-nominated experts and representatives of biodiversity-related conventions, UN agencies, academic and research institutions, industry/business sector, local and indigenous communities, and international and other relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations. The main objective of the meeting was to articulate a framework for action for achieving the internationally agreed 2010 Biodiversity Target. The report of the meeting was made available at SBSTTA 9.

  • In 2005, Countdown 2010 was launched at the stakeholder conference “Sustaining Livelihoods and Biodiversity: Attaining the 2010 Biodiversity Target in the European Biodiversity Strategy” (Malahide, Ireland, 24-27 May, 2005). Through a multitude of activities, this initiative assists Governments worldwide in moving closer to the 2010 Biodiversity Target.

  • Since the adoption of the 2010 Biodiversity Target, most countries have established specific national targets within the flexible framework adopted through decisions VII/30 and VIII/15. The third national reports provide details for each sub-target in the framework. For example, in December 2006 Brazil adopted a comprehensive suite of national targets for both the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and the 2010 Biodiversity Target.

  • At the initiative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, presented to 61st session of the General Assembly in 2006 in the Report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization, the 2010 Biodiversity Target was incorporated as a new target under Goal 7 ("Ensure environmental sustainability") of the Millenniums Development Goals.

  • The meeting of the environment ministers of the eight leading industrialized countries, the G8, and of the five major newly industrializing countries - China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa – held in Potsdam, Germany from 15 to 17 March 2007, endorsed the Potsdam Initiative – Biological Diversity 2010. The ministers of the G8+5 agreed to the process of analysing the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation and renewed their commitment to develop and implement national targets and strategies in order to achieve the 2010 Biodiversity Target and beyond.

In summary, the 2010 Biodiversity Target has been agreed in a variety of fora and formulations and its achievement presents a truly global challenge to which actors around the globe respond in different ways and according to their capacities and priorities.