As part of the 2020 global World Wildlife Day celebrations, the European Commission launched a new global coalition for biodiversity: United For Biodiversity at the iconic Oceanographic Museum of Monaco.

We were thrilled to attend the event and join the European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans & Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius and UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen in calling for stronger mobilization to protect biodiversity ahead of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in October 2020. The EU Commission is calling on all national parks, aquariums, botanic gardens, zoos, science and natural history museums to join forces and boost public awareness about the nature crisis.

Biodiversity crisis is an important part in climate change. Protection and restoration of biodiversity would not only save nature for future generations, but also help to tackle climate change, and avoid negative consequences on our food, health, and economy.

We urgently need to take global action, otherwise, our only chance of seeing nature is in the zoos and botanical gardens. That would be a failure of humankind.

said Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries.

The European Commission also encourages national, regional and local authorities, non-governmental organizations, businesses, scientists and individual citizens to play their part in raising awareness ahead of the United Nations Biodiversity Summit (CoP15).

During CoP15, the 196 Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity are expected to adopt a new global framework to protect and restore nature. This framework is as needed for biodiversity protection as the Paris Agreement is for the climate urgency. 

United for Biodiversity complements the highly successful World Aquariums #ReadyToChange to #BeatPlasticPollution Coalition launched in 2017 by Karmenu Vella, a former member of the European Commission, in charge of Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries between 2014 and 2019. To date, more than 200 aquariums in 41 countries have joined the Coalition to raise global awareness of the plastic pollution crisis in the ocean.

The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco hosted the ceremony to mark both the launch of the United for Biodiversity Pledge and handover of the leadership of the Aquariums Against Plastic Pollution coalition from the EU Commission to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) under the Clean Seas campaign.

The ceremony was followed by a workshop attended by NGOs, Communications experts, Education, Outreach and Awareness-raising specialists to help design the future of Aquariums Against Plastic Pollution under the Clean Seas umbrella.

It was a pleasure to chair one of the workshop sessions focused on Community Action and share ideas, best practices and case studies with passionate educators, scientists, and ocean advocates.

comments Domino Albert, Project AWARE Associate Director, Global Communications.

We are grateful to have been invited by the EU Commission to contribute to the workshop and join this inspiring event.

In the coming weeks and months, many opportunities will arise to boost public awareness about the nature crisis and we hope you'll join us in taking action for #Biodiversity2020.

The European Commission will announce the new EU Biodiversity Strategy to protect and restore nature in Europe, detailing the EU's ambition for the Biodiversity CoP15. A major public engagement event, EU Green Week, will also aim to mobilize society for nature and biodiversity from 1-5 June 2020, with dozens of events across Europe, and a conference in Lisbon and Brussels.

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“The world can change and the more people realise the need to change the more likely it is to happen ... I believe in the power of people” says @VSinkevicius ?? Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries at the launch of new coalition #Biodiversity2020#WWD2020pic.twitter.com/e8s0riDqf1

— Project AWARE (@projectaware) March 3, 2020

Cartoon by Gatis Šļūka