About the Conference

At the end of the International Year for Biodiversity (IYB), the ongoing dramatic loss of biological diversity, at the level of genes, species, landscapes and biomes, has been made more visible than ever. The “biodiversity crisis” is of an unprecedented scope and may lead to half the species on Earth becoming extinct by the middle of this century. The decline of biodiversity and the erosion of ecosystem services are recognised as one of the major global challenges for human society, comparable and linked to climate change, energy security and the world food problem.

Having noted this, the scientific community faces new challenges, both in basic research and in communicating with policy. The targets set earlier for biodiversity have been missed. Revised targets need to account for the human needs for ecosystem services as well as for other considerations such as the intrinsic value of biological diversity. Multilateral agreements like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) or the UN Millennium Declaration with its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide some integration and convergence of their strategic objectives. However, political action on national and subsidiary levels often fails this integrated attempts. Sectoral approaches and impact oriented monitoring indicators lose track of coupled problem dynamics, cross-scale interactions and cross-sectoral effects. For example, strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emission are at risk of leading to large-scale conversion of land for bioenergy production, further accelerating biodiversity loss. At the same time, conservation of some natural ecosystems could help mitigating up to a third of greenhouse gas emissions.

Objectives

The main goal of the conference is to review the state of concern for major components of biodiversity, and to discuss possible contributions of biodiversity conservation and management to achieve the new targets under development. Focus is on scientific reviewing current and future action in the field of the CBD and the MDGs.

Scope

The conference is addressing to scientists from basic as well as applied research concerned with various field of relevant CBD and MDGs related themes. In order to develop solutions and strategies to overbear trade-offs between biodiversity crisis and human-well being, also policy makers and other stakeholders are addressed. The conference will connect researchers and other stakeholders from natural sciences, social science, economy, humanities, technology and related fields in an integrated way.