Victoria Centre forges links with UN body
victoria-university-of-wellington
Tue May 22 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Victoria Centre forges links with UN body
Tuesday, 22 May 2007, 10:27 am
Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington
22 May 2007
Victoria Centre forges links with UN body
Victoria University’s Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology is celebrating International Day for Biological Diversity having secured significant research links with a United Nations organisation.
Centre Director, Associate Professor Ben Bell, has just returned from Montreal, Canada, where he promoted New Zealand and the Centre’s conservation and research initiatives to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, part of the United Nations Environment Programme.
“Victoria University is the first university outside Canada to have developed a research relationship with the Convention on Biological Diversity. I am particularly pleased to announce this today—May 22—the International Day for Biological Diversity," says Dr Bell.
“The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the International Day for Biological Diversity to increase international understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues, and the theme for 2007 is topical—Climate Change and Biological Diversity.
“A number of research projects within the Centre at Victoria University address issues of climate change and their potential impact on biodiversity. For example, possible changes in distribution and in reproductive cycles of some of our cold-blooded animals, such as the tuatara and native frogs, or impacts of global warming on the biotic communities of the Antarctic."
Dr Bell was invited to Montreal by Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, who was a guest of the New Zealand Government in January. Victoria University hosted Dr Djoghlaf during his visit to Wellington, which included a visit to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.
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“Dr Djoghlaf was clearly impressed by the initiatives New Zealand has taken in conserving and restoring its biological diversity. In many ways New Zealand can inform the world in conservation management and research, particularly in the ways we have tackled species and island restoration, including ‘mainland islands’ like the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.
“Our approaches to island conservation and restoration have already been successfully exported to island groups in the Pacific and further a field. There is more that we can do in this respect with the Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology working through a major international agency like the Convention on Biological Diversity.”
In a press communiqué issued after Dr Bell’s visit to Montreal, Dr Djoghlaf said he was pleased to see the Consortium of Universities expanding beyond Canada.
“I am honoured by the prospect of collaboration with the Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology of the prestigious Victoria University of Wellington in support of the scientific and technical component of the mandate of the Secretariat when Parties are redoubling their efforts to enhance the implementation of the objectives of the Convention, which require the active engagements of all stakeholders including the scientific community.”
ENDS
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