Do you know what day it is today? It is the 20/10/2010. So what? Well, it is the day, when the world community takes stock in Nagoya, Japan of its commitment made in 2002, when heads of governments decided at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa that they wanted to reduce the rate of loss of nature and biodiversity by the year 2010.
Good News at Last for Flood-Stricken Pakistan
Do you know what day it is today?
It is the 20/10/2010.
So what?
Well, it is the day, when the world community takes stock in Nagoya, Japan of its commitment made in 2002, when heads of governments decided at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa that they wanted to reduce the rate of loss of nature and biodiversity by the year 2010.
The objective to reduce the loss of nature has been met in some parts of the world through extraordinary and creative approaches. The prestigious Markhor Award of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) is recognizing and celebrating outstanding conservation performance that links the conservation of biodiversity and human livelihoods through the application of the principles of sustainable use, in particular hunting, as part of wildlife and ecosystem management.
The CIC, supported by FACE invited the world community at the 10th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan to attend a festive show for the Markhor Award 2010 Ceremony. First, the IAF gave an account on their impressive success in saving the peregrine falcon. The entire ceremony was accompanied by the European champions in bird whistling, who are hunters flown in from Italy and France, but then it came:
The winner of Markhor Award 2010 was announced:
Torghar Conservation Program (TCP)
of the Society for Torghar Environmental Protection (STEP) in Pakistan
A roar of cheers went through the rows of attending guests and a group of smiling people in the national costumes of Baluchistan/Pakistan climbed the stage. What a moment of recognition of decades of work. Local communities and international trophy hunting, a symbiosis of success. Congratulations to all, who contributed to the success. ”There seems to be mounting evidence that sustainable use is a viable path for conservation of nature, as also “The Economist” recently published a major article on the subject”, Tamás Marghescu, Director General of CIC said.
The Ceremony was concluded by Felix with his campaign: “Stop Talking, Start Planting. Talking alone will not keep glaciers from melting and rainforests from disappearing”, he said. Felix Finkbeiner (13) from Bavaria is mobilizing children in more than 72 countries to fight for their own future by planting trees since he finished his grade 4 class-presentation in January 2007 with the words: „Let’s plant a million trees in each country of the world.” Felix, member of the UNEP Junior Board demanded that tree planting required also the sustainable harvest of wood, the long term storage of wood in construction and the regrowth of harvested timber in order to maximize CO2 storage for battling climate change.
The sustainable use evening in Nagoya was ending with a ceremony and party organized by the Countdown 2010 movement (coordinated by IUCN) in cooperation with CIC, celebrating the successes of the 2010 biodiversity target. Nagoya will in the next few days be the scene, where nature conservation sets its new target for the future and for sure, sustainable use will have a stake in it.
The CIC thanks for support received from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, in particular its Executive Secretary, Dr. Achmed Djouglaf, the CIC National Delegations of Italy and Switzerland and from the Global Sustainability Trust.
Kai Wollscheid, former Director General attended a side event organised by the Liaison Group on Bushmeat, of which CIC is a Member, in Nagoya, on behalf of the CIC. You can read BBC’s wrap-up here.
Keiya Nakajima from The Japan Falconiformes Center, who has provided the CIC team enormous assistance during the CBD – COP10 event in Nagoya published an article in “The International Journal of Falconry” Autumn 2011 edition.