A growing awareness of the global value of biodiversity in curbing desertification as well as their mutually-reinforcing effects, have brought new and growing interest to the issues of biodiversity conservation in the drylands. Eight of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots are located in the drylands according to Conservation International. The drylands of Eurasia are habitats for many migratory bird species. Drylands are also the natural habitats for at least one in every three plants under cultivation in the world today. According to Professor Uriel Safriel, a world-renowned scholar of desertification and key author of the authoritative Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, “it is the loss of biodiversity that initiates the vicious cycle of desertification, then global warming and then a further loss of biodiversity.” However, both drylands biodiversity and sustainable land management are coming under increasing threat from climate change.

High-ranking government officials, including ministers, scientists and other actors attending the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, in Nagoya, Japan, will further consider the linkages between desertification and biodiversity loss, and their nexus with climate change at Land Day 3 on Saturday, 23 October 2010, in Nagoya, Japan.

Land Day 3 speakers include Ms Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Minister of Environment and Tourism, Namibia, Mr Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary, UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Mr Ahmed Djoglaf, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity, Dr Ashok Khosla, President, IUCN, Ms Yukiko Omura, Vice President, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and Yukihiro Morimoto, Professor, Landscape Ecology and planning, Graduate school of Global environmental studies, Kyoto University.

Experts, policy makers and activists at the event will examine the value of the biological diversity in the drylands, access and benefit-sharing as tools to promote biodiversity conservation in the drylands, the role of science in conserving drylands biodiversity and the valued added of synergies in the implementation of the Conventions on Biological Diversity, Desertification, and Climate Change among other issues.

The outcomes will help to advance on-going discussions on related aspects, and enhance the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the drylands.
For more information, visit: http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/landday/2010b/menu.php
Or contact:
Ms Yukie Hori, UNCCD, via email: yhori@unccd.int, Cell: +49-(0)-173 268 7590
Ms Jaime Webbe, CBD, via email: Jaime.webbe@cbd.int

For media interviews, contact:
Mr Dan Shepard, DPI, via email: Shepard@un.org
Ms Wagaki Mwangi, UNCCD, via email: wmwangi@unccd.int, cell: +49-(0)-173 268 7593