This is the year by which the world's governments solemnly swore that they would be beating back the biodiversity crisis, which threatens to bring about the sixth mass extinction of species in the lifetime of our planet, and the first since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. To be precise, world leaders pledged, early last decade, to achieve by 2010, 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.