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Launch of an Enhanced Strategic Partnership to Benefit Life on Earth

From : The Nature Conservancy

Joint Efforts of UN Convention on Biological Diversity and The Nature Conservancy to
Help Governments Implement Global Conservation Treaty, Increase Protected Areas

BARCELONA, SPAIN — October 7, 2008 — The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and The Nature Conservancy announced they have entered into a groundbreaking partnership agreement to support the 191 United Nations CBD signatories in enhancing the implementation of the objectives of the Convention.

This new agreement formalizes collaboration between the Conservancy and the Secretariat of the UNCBD to support governments in need of assistance in achieving their agreed commitments under the UN Convention, which is administrated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This unique legally binding instrument was opened for signature at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. The Convention aims among other things to develop global strategies for conservation and protection of biological diversity by implementing national systems of protected areas, protecting island, freshwater and forest biodiversity, preventing invasive species, and addressing the impacts of climate change on people and nature.

In 2004, The Nature Conservancy was one of seven international non-governmental organizations that made a joint commitment to supporting governments to implement the newly adopted Program of Work on Protected Areas. Since then, in over 25 countries, the Conservancy has been an instrumental force in helping governments establish national partnerships among government agencies and civil society organizations to implement the Programme of Work in support of stronger and more effective protected areas.

“The Nature Conservancy has lined up behind the CBD and its government parties because that is a key place where conservation gets done,” said Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “This collaboration demonstrates how civil society organizations like the Conservancy can work in tandem with governments to help countries achieve significant progress in conservation and sustainable development.”

“The Bonn Biodiversity Summit held in May opened a new era of enhanced engagement of all stakeholders for meeting the global biodiversity challenges facing mankind. Achieving the 2010 biodiversity target which aims to reduce substantially the current rate of loss of biodiversity is possible but requires the active engagement of all stakeholders. We in the Secretariat are grateful for the support that The Nature Conservancy is offering, as a strong organization with global reach. We hope that other organizations will follow their lead.” said Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the CBD.

Currently, the Conservancy is supporting implementation of various CBD programs across five continents and in more than 30 countries, and has worked with governments and other organizations under the provisions of the CBD to create more than 22 million hectares of new protected areas.

Through this new agreement, the CBD and The Nature Conservancy will:

• Continue to strengthen implementation of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas, in collaboration with the Programme of Work on Protected Areas Friends Consortium.
• Continue to catalyze commitment and implementation of the Programme of Work on Island Biodiversity, in connection with the Global Island Partnership.
• Broaden collaboration to catalyze government action on forests, marine and coastal biological diversity, invasive alien species, inland waters, sustainable use, biodiversity and climate change, and other relevant programmes in consortium with other interested actors.
• Analyze common factors of success for catalyzing and implementing commitments under the Convention, particularly in the area of national, regional and international collaboration.
• Strengthen the science and understanding of linkages among biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

A significant new area of work through this agreement will be to understand and communicate to governments the significant linkages among biodiversity conservation and solutions to climate change. For over a decade, The Nature Conservancy has been a leader in helping develop tangible projects, such as Noel Kempff Mercardo National Park in Bolivia and Kimbe Bay Marine Protected Area Network in Papua New Guinea, to demonstrate conservation solutions to the challenges of climate change. The science, tools and learning from those and other projects will be synthesized and disseminated to governments to help them tackle the challenges posed by climate change.

The Conservancy has closely aligned its own conservation goals with those of the CBD. Doing so has enabled the Conservancy to work hand-in-hand with governments on shared conservation outcomes. For example, The Nature Conservancy is working towards a “2015 goal” to effectively conserve at least 10% of all major habitat types on Earth.

The Convention on Biological Diversity is one of the most broadly subscribed international environmental treaties in the world. Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 1992, it currently has 192 Parties—191 States and the European Community— who have committed themselves to its three main goals: the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components and the equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The Secretariat of the Convention is located in Montreal. www.cbd.int

The Nature Conservancy a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 18 million acres (7 million hectares or 70,000km2) in the United States and have helped preserve more than 117 million acres (47 million hectares or 470,000km2) in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.