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2018 – Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

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International Day for Biological Diversity

The United Nations has proclaimed May 22 The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. When first created by the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly in late 1993, 29 December (the date of entry into force of the Convention of Biological Diversity), was designated The International Day for Biological Diversity. In December 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted 22 May as IDB, to commemorate the adoption of the text of the Convention on 22 May 1992 by the Nairobi Final Act of the Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This was partly done because it was difficult for many countries to plan and carry out suitable celebrations for the date of 29 December, given the number of holidays that coincide around that time of year.

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Notably, The Secretariat announced that it would invite Parties to the Convention to participate in the 25th anniversary by, among other activities, organizing and hosting local celebrations on 22 May 2018, the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB). In line with the above, the Secretariat is pleased to announce that this year’s IDB theme will be: “Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity”.The theme was chosen to mark the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity and to highlight progress made in the achievement of its objectives at the national and global levels.As mentioned in the notification, the Secretariat is in the process of developing a variety of outreach materials to support the celebrations on this important day.We invite everyone to keep us informed of your plans for activities to celebrate the International Day for Biological Diversity, so that they may be included on this page.

Celebrations around the world

The CBD Secretariat encourages all Parties to the Convention and all organizations that deal in some way with the issue to organize activities and events to celebrate the IDB and to take advantage of it to raise public awareness, and to showcase their work on biodiversity and related achievements over the last 25 years.

If you are an individual you can also organize an activity yourself in your community, here are some ideas. Every person can make a difference!

Please help us share your IDB celebrations by registering your activities on the website of the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity. You will be asked to create a CBD account. The advantage of creating an account is that you will be able to register and showcase all your biodiversity-related work. Your information will also appear on the IDB website.

Celebrate the Green Wave!

Green Wave of Action 2018

Inviting children and youth to take part in The Green Wave during the school year and particularly on 22 May is a way to remind them that learning about biodiversity can be fun and that they can contribute to a global movement of people who care for the planet.

Click here to join us for the first time. If you already have an account, click here to log in.

The Green Wave is a multi-year global campaign that enables children and youth to make a difference – one school, one project, one step at a time. The Green Wave brings together children and youth from around the world to raise awareness about biodiversity, and the need to reduce its loss.

We invite you to join The Green Wave. You’ll learn-by-doing and be recognized internationally on Google maps. Start by exploring this website. Learn more about The Green Wave, Green Wavecelebrations, trees and how your school can get involved in an exciting international initiative.

About The Green Wave

The Green Wave is a global biodiversity campaign to educate children and youth about biodiversity. Each year, The Green Wave will contribute to worldwide celebrations of the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB). It also supports other national, international and global tree planting initiatives such as the UNEP-led Billion Tree Campaign.

In participating schools, students plant a locally important tree species in or near their schoolyard. Ideally, the tree species would also be locally indigenous. Where possible, the tree should be planted on 22 May – IDB. In some countries, it may be too hot, too cold, too rainy, too dry or too something else to plant on 22 May. If such conditions apply in your country, you should plant in another month but still hold a special ceremony on 22 May.

On 22 May, students around the world will count down to 10:00 local time, when they will water their tree in their respective schoolyards, thereby creating a figurative “green wave” starting in the far east and traveling west around the world.

Throughout the day, students can upload text summaries on The Green Wave website to share their tree-planting story with other children and youth from around the world. The interactive map will be launched at 20:20 local time, thereby creating a second “green wave”.

Key Messages

The Green Wave is a multi-year campaign to raise awareness about biodiversity that contributes to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) programme of work on Communication, Education and Public Awareness.

The key messages of the campaign are threefold:

    • Children and youth around the world want a healthy, biodiverse future.
    • Children and youth around the world will unite and take action for biodiversity.
    • Children and youth are working towards the 2020 Aichi biodiversity target of reducing biodiversity loss.

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