Green Party Marks International Day for Biodiversity

The Green Party today celebrates the UN International Day for Biodiversity (IDB), designed to promote and protect the diversity of our ecosystems, species, genes, even our landscape.

The IDB was first celebrated on December 29 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on Biodiversity in 1993.  Canada played a leading role countering George Bush’s attempts to prevent it.

Just over ten years ago in 2002, the world’s leaders agreed to work on reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Sadly, they have not achieved their goal. In fact, the various factors that lead to such loss have, in too many cases, intensified.

The consequences of this global failure will impact on our water, food systems, health, environmental and physical security, including the severity of climate change, and even our planetary culture. As usual, the poor are and will continue to suffer the most as they try to eke out a living from an increasingly barren and hostile planet.

The Green Party calls on the Harper Conservatives to do much more to support, both financially and practically, the implementation of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. This is not a “green” issue; it concerns the future of our earth.

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