From the Rio Conventions’ Ecosystems Pavilion: It is now widely recognized that climate change, land degradation and biodiversity are interconnected, not only through effects of climate change on biodiversity and land management, but also through changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning that affect climate change. The carbon cycle and the water cycle, arguably the two most important large-scale processes for life on Earth, both depend on biodiversity – at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels and can yield feedbacks to climate change.

Maintaining and restoring healthy ecosystems plays a key role in adapting to and mitigating climate change through biodiversity conservation, sustainable use and sustainable land management and yields multiple environmental, economic and social benefits.

Ecosystem-based approaches provide an important route to sustainable action and represent a vital insurance policy against irreversible damage from climate change, whereas failure to acknowledge the relationship between climate change and biodiversity and failure to act swiftly and in an integrated manner could undermine efforts for improvements in both areas.

However, enormous pressures have been put on ecosystems to support the ever-growing demand for natural resources over recent years. Ecosystem services that are central to adaptation include goods, such as food, fodder and pharmaceutical products, and services, such as nutrient cycling and hydrological flows.

This was discussed on Monday, 18 October, 2010 ion Nagoya, Japan, during the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

By  J.E. Nigros

The people of Turkey have long been aware of the unique biodiversity of their country and the importance of preserving natural habitats. More than a millennium ago, the folk poet Dede Korkut wrote this prayer:

May our big shade tree never be cut down

May our forests never thin out

May our clear running streams never dry up

May we never be deprived of hope

May our wings never be broken

May our household fire keep burning

While Dede Korkut’s prayer seems to consign the fate of the environment to Allah and to chance, modern Turkish people know they must pass laws and enforce environmental policies to protect their environment.

Since the 1950’s, Turkey has been developing its environmental policies. Since 1997, the rules of the Convention of Biological Diversity have been in force. Turkey is a party to all relevant international conventions having to do with the conservation of biodiversity. According to the ever-evolving document, the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, Turkish legislation, however, has never been “harmonized from a consistent environmental point of view which presents frequent problems of overlap and lack of legal mandates for institutions.”

The UN has launched the International Year of Biodiversity, warning that the ongoing loss of species around the world is affecting human well-being.