2010 - the International Year of Biodiversity - how are we doing?

This week, some 16,000 scientists, natural resource managers, advocates and politicians are gathered in Nagoya, Japan for the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10)  to the Convention on Biodiversity (see http://www.cbd.int/cop10/).  This is a particularly auspicious meeting in many respects. 
Some of you may recall from my blog last February (see http://sealifeceo.blogspot.com/2010/02/2010-international-biodiversity-year.html), that 2010 was declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Biodiversity.  As such it is the culimination of many years of global programs designed to accelerate the rate of biodiversity conservation and/or reduce threats to biodiversity.  I was involved in the design of several of those initiatives over the preceding decade (see http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/307/5707/212) and so am particularly interested in checking in on the outcomes of that work.

To help with that assessment, a paper was published in Science yesterday by dozens of  leading biologists - see www.sciencexpress.org / 26 October 2010 / Page 1 / 10.1126/science.1194442. The paper draws largely from the increasingly comprehensive IUCN Red List which now has data on nearly 28,000 species.  The results show a continuing downward trend in the diversity of life on earth.  For example, nearly one fifth of all vertebrate species are threatened  ranging from 13% of birds to 41% of amphibians.  One mammal is thought to have gone extinct (the Yangtze River dolphin) in the past 10 years, making it the first such megafauna species loss since the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s.

Not surprisingly, conservation programs have clearly been most effective in developed countries, but are still barely adequate to keep pace with major threats such as habitat loss, invasive species and climate change.  Of particular interest to programs at the Alaska SeaLife Center have been global efforts to reduce some fishing impacts on marine mammals and seabirds.  The recovery of the humpback whale is cited as a particularly successful, but rare, example of effective international efforts.

Reading this paper and the daily reports from Nagoya, it is clear that much needs to be done if our children are to enjoy the same diversity of life on earth that we have experienced.  I welcome your thoughts on what more the Alaska SeaLife Center might do to promote greater stewardship of species under immediate threat as well as those species that we all depend on for our long term well being.