International Day for (marine) Biological Diversity
22 May 2012
Here’s wishing everyone a very happy International Day
for (marine) Biological Diversity! The choice of
theme for this year is especially appropriate given the UK
administrations’ commitment to substantially completing an
ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas by
2012.
JNCC is proud to be playing its part in helping the UK
administrations move towards achievement of the target for marine
protected areas. Our staff at JNCC’s Peterborough and
Aberdeen offices are working closely with colleagues in Natural
England, the Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish National
Heritage, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Council
for Nature Conservation and the Countryside, as well as with Defra,
the devolved administrations, the Marine Management Organisation
and Cefas. And the very recent and welcome news of the grant
from the Darwin Initiative to undertake marine mapping on St Helena
illustrates JNCC’s marine work in the UK’s Overseas Territories as
well.
For me it's a personal journey, having chaired the group that
established the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Jakarta
mandate back in 1995/96, which is still the mainstay of the
Convention’s marine and coastal efforts. Importantly, while
protected areas were part of that mandate, other aspects of marine
biodiversity were included too, such as fisheries management,
aquaculture/mariculture, and bio-prospecting in the high
seas.
Global change science tells us there are plenty of challenges ahead
for the marine and coastal environments, but managing and
conserving our marine biodiversity more effectively is the best way
to combat and adapt to those challenges. As always, JNCC
stands ready to work with all our stakeholders, government and
non-government alike, to achieve better management and conservation
of the UK’s, and the world’s, marine biodiversity – not just for 22
May, but for the years ahead.
We welcome you to join us!
Peter Bridgewater
Chair, Joint Nature Conservation Committee