2020 a year for nature and biodiversity

People everywhere need to remember that we depend on Mother Earth to survive, the UN chief said in his message for World Wildlife Day marked on Tuesday 3 march, advocating for “a more caring, thoughtful and sustainable relationship with nature”.

Humans depend for their very survival on stable and healthy ecosystems and urgent action is needed in 2020 to get the world on track to a more sustainable future.

Here are some of the biodiversity days and meetings planned for 2020:

• 15–22 February: The 13^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13)
• 23–28 February: World Biodiversity Forum, Davos, Switzerland
• 22 May – International Day for Biological Diversity
• 2–6 June: UN Ocean Conference, Lisbon, Portugal
• 5 June – World Environment Day/European Union Environment Week
• 8 June – World Oceans Day
• 11–19 June: IUCN World Conservation Congress, Marseilles, France
• 23–28 August: Water and Climate Change: Accelerating Action, Stockholm, Sweden
• 15 September: 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 75) in New York, with the first day of the high-level General Debate on 22 September. A Biodiversity Leaders’ Summit might take place at the same time and place.
• 27 September:  5^th anniversary of the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals
• 5–10 October [tentative], Kunming, Yunnan, China:  UN Biodiversity Conference: “Convention on Biological Diversity COP 15”
• 9–20 November Glasgow, Scotland, UK: 2020 UN Climate Change Conference: “UNFCCC COP 26”

Learn more about 2020, the “super year” for biodiversity here.