Tomorrow is the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) 2025, a day set aside to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity and its preservation is celebrated on May 22 every year.
The day commemorates the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992. The International Day for Biological Diversity website is dedicated to the linkages between the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In its resolution A/RES/55/201 dated 8 February 2001, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 22 May as the International Day for Biological Diversity to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. This date commemorates the adoption of the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on 22 May 1992.
In the same resolution, the General Assembly reiterated its request to the United Nations Secretary-General, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity to take all steps necessary to ensure the successful observance of the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB).
The day is to provide an opportunity to foster wide support for the implementation of the Convention, its Protocols and related action frameworks and this year’s theme is “Harmony with nature and sustainable development”
The IDB 2025 campaign seeks to focus the world’s attention on the linkages between the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Goals and Targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) as two universal agendas that must be pursued in tandem in the spirit of the recently adopted Pact for the future.
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And to participate, advocates are enjoined to propagate messages from high-level representatives of Parties and relevant organizations. As a result, it is requested that messages on the theme of IDB 2025 from high-level representatives of Parties and relevant organizations in one of the six official languages of the United Nations are shared.
It is expected that everyone participates in the IDB 2025 campaign, including the private sector, media, academia and the public at large because everyone has a story to tell on biodiversity and on the IDB 2025 theme.
Progress in halting and reversing biodiversity loss is crucial for the attainment of the SDGs. Conversely, the pursuit of the SDGs catalyzes or brings about the transformations that, according to the latest assessments of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), are needed to fulfill the vision adopted within the KMGBF: living in harmony with nature. This interactive tool illustrates the linkages between the KMGBF and the SDGs at target-level and will constitute a central piece of the IDB 2025 campaign.
This campaign also focuses on instilling a sense of urgency and advocating for accelerated implementation. In 2025, both the KMGBF and the 2030 Agenda will have five more years before the 23 action targets of the former, and the 17 SDGs of the latter come to the end of the period that the world agreed for their implementation.
The specific objectives of the IDB 2025 campaign include: to bolster public awareness of the centrality of biodiversity to all life on Earth, including socio-economic challenges such as poverty and inequality that are covered by the full set of SDGs, call for the rapid preparation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) that are (a) aligned with the KMGBF and (b) integrated into National Sustainable Development Strategies guided with the SDGs, leaving no one behind and highlight the importance of seizing synergies at all levels, including through a whole-of-government, whole-of-society implementation, with the UN system bringing its support to national actors through consolidated UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks reflecting the KMGBF and the SDGs.
It is also to encourage bolder initiatives by all actors, including the private sector, civil society and the media. These initiatives can range from communicating biodiversity science, advocating for the accelerated implementation of the SDGs and the KMGBF and initiating the required transformations to decouple socio-economic progress from the destruction of nature.