The 25th anniversary of the Convention on Biological Diversity

At the United Nations Conference on Environmental Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the world leaders' attention was focused on accelerated degradation of biodiversity, one of the major resources on the Earth. In order to lay foundations for solving this problem, in years preceding the Conference a team of experts was preparing a document called the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Convention was formed as a multilateral agreement which commits signatory countries to implement the biological and landscape diversity conservation strategies in all sectors. The special significance of the Convention is in changing the concept of nature conservation with moving the focus from conservation of the certain areas and species to the conservation of the Earth's overall biological and landscape diversity.

During the Rio conference the document was opened for signature and one year later the Convention entered into force in 168 countries. The Croatian Parliament ratified the treaty in April 1996. This year we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Convention which provides a unique opportunity for revision of former achievements in protection of biological and landscape diversity as well as for emphasizing the importance of its conservation through future measures and strategies at national and global levels. You can read more about the Convention on this link.