Friday, January 1, 2010

Useful Links to Year of Biodiversity

www.cbd.int/2010  
Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). Outlines the tenets of the Convention and has many useful pages of information detailing the issues, problems, solutions of biodiversity from islands to invasive species, and coasts to climate change. 

www.countdown2010.net
Countdown 2010. A network of partners working towards 2010 targets to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss. An initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

www.iucn.org
IUCN is the oldest and largest global environmental network with 1,000 government and non government organization (NGO) members together with 11,000 volunteer scientists in 160 countries, and 1,000 professional staff in 60 offices worldwide. The website has details of members, Commissions, programmes and publications.

www.arkive.org
A database of downloadable films, photos, sound recordings and information about global species. Billed as ‘a Noah’s Ark for the internet age’, Arkive is very supportive of zoos and aquariums using its content for IYB activities. 

www.bgci.org
BGCI is an international organisation that exists to ensure the world-wide conservation of threatened plants, the continued existence of which are intrinsically linked to global issues including poverty, human well-being and climate change.2

www.biodiversitylibrary.org
A partnership of the world’s 10 major natural history museums (London; Field Museum, Chicago; AMNH, New York; Smithsonian, Washington), botanical libraries (Kew, London; Missouri; New York) and Harvard University to make available online their combined collections of two million biodiversity- related volumes collected over 200 years. 

www.conservation.org/explore/priority_areas/hotspots
Information about biodiversity hotspots from Conservation International. 

http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org
Information about biodiversity hotspots from Conservation International. 

www.eol.org
The Encyclopaedia of Life – an ambitious database that intends, in time, to contain reference material and information about all of the 1.8 million species currently described and named. Also has learning materials. 

www.pbs.org/evolution
There are numerous internet sites about evolution. This one, from the US Public Service Broadcasting, offers a portal of information and learning materials. 

www.ramsar.org
The website of the international, intergovernmental Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

www.tol.org
The Tree of Life – some overlap with EOL but concentrates more on the relationships and evolutionary history of organisms along with their biological characteristics.

www.unep-wcmc.org
The World Conservation Monitoring Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme is a very sound and current database of species and habitat/ecosystems of conservation importance. articularly good for biodiversityrelated maps. 

www.millenniumecosystemassessment.org
A detailed review and analysis leading to the key findings of this section.

www.bioclimate.org
An embryonic website that will be a major portal for news, information and data concerning the links between climate change and biodiversity. 

www.panda.org/livingplanet
The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Zoological Society of London (ZSL) produce an annual report that outlines trends in biodiversity. Central to the report is the Living Planet Index (LPI) and the Human Ecological Footprint.

www.redlist.org
IUCN’s red lists detail the taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on species facing the highest risk of extinction. 

www.regionalredlist.com
A new site that collates information about national red lists and action plans. Does your country or region have a red list? Here’s the place to find out. 

www.wildlifepictureindex.org
Initiative of New York’s Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). A database of biodiversity monitoring using camera traps. 

www.edgeofexistence.org
EDGE – a ZSL initiative to rank species according to evolutionary distinctiveness and global endangerment. 

www.cbd.int/education
The Convention on Biological Diversity has a biodiversity education portal on its website. CBD is
also producing an education toolkit for IYB.

www.ceeindia.org

India’s Centre for Environmental Education produces many environmental education resources including a recipe book of zoo education activities from around the world and a CD about master planning available 

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