KARACHI - The United Nations is marking 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity to curb the unprecedented loss of the worlds species due to human activity at an alarming rate some experts put at 1,000 times the natural progression. In this connection, a slew of events highlighting the vital role of the phenomenon play an important role in maintaining the life support system on Earth, the Environment, Wild Life and Flora and Fauna related organisations informed The Nation on Saturday. Humans are part of natures rich diversity and have the power to protect or destroy it, the secretariat of the convention on biological diversity, which is hosted by the UN Environment Programme UNEP, said in summarising the years main message, with its focus on raising awareness to generate public pressure for action by the worlds decision makers. Biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services our lives depend on. Human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate. These losses are irreversible, impoverish us all and damage the life support systems we rely on everyday but we can prevent them. Although initial celebrations began in November under the slogan Biodiversity is life, biodiversity is our life, the official launch will take place in Berlin on January 11. This will be followed on January 21 and 22 by the first major event of the year, a high-profile meeting at the Paris headquarters of the UNESCO. A host of other events, meetings, symposia and multi-media exhibitions will follow throughout the year in venues around the world, from Trondheim, Norway, to Delhi, India, from Doha, Qatar, to Cartagena, Colombia, and from Shanghai, China, to Nairobi, Kenya. These events will culminate in a high-level meeting at UN Headquarters in New York at the start of the General Assemblys 65th Annual General Debate in September and an official closing in Kana Zawa, Japan, in December. A wide variety of environmental goods and services that we take for granted are under threat, with profound and damaging consequences for ecosystems, economies and livelihoods, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in November at the start of the pre-celebrations. He said: In this international year, we must counter the perception that people are disconnected from our natural environment. We must increase understanding of the implications of losing biodiversity. In 2010, I call on every country and each citizen of our planet to engage in a global alliance to protect life on Earth. The goal for raising awareness of these issues is to generate public pressure for action by decision makers, and to create the conditions for governments, individuals and other important sectors, to be encouraged to implement the convention and to engage with other international and national institutions, towards achieving the goals of the convention. It offers decision-makers guidance based on the precautionary principle that where there is a threat of significant reduction or loss of biological diversity, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to avoid or minimise such a threat. It acknowledges that substantial investment is required to conserve diversity, but argues that conservation will bring significant environmental, economic and social benefits in return. Looking at the economic costs of action or inaction, a recent UN-backed Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study estimated loss of natural capital due to deforestation and degradation at between $2 trillion and $4.5 trillion every year, a staggering economic cost of taking nature for granted. It is estimated that for an annual investment of $45 billion into protected areas alone, we could secure the delivery of ecosystem services worth some $5 trillion a year, it said. When compared to current financial losses on the markets, this is not a big price to pay. Sound ecosystem and biodiversity management, and the inclusion of Natural Capital in governmental and business accounting can start to redress inaction and reduce the cost of future losses. SPECIES OF THE DAY AND IYB: The United Nations has declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). As the largest international organisation for the conservation of nature, biodiversity has been our primary focus every day of every year since 1948. IUCNs work on biodiversity includes comprehensive research on the status of species; action to protect threatened species; the management and restoration of natural areas, national parks and other protected areas; and promotion of the sustainable use of natural resources. Governments, community organisations, the UN and more and more businesses actively seek guidance from IUCN on all of these areas. Biodiversity is the backbone of all life on Earth and the core of what IUCN does. SPECIES OF THE DAY: To coincide with the IYB, to increase awareness of the huge variety of life and raise the profile of threatened species, we will be launching The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Species of the Day in January. Each day in 2010, a different species will be featured on a range of websites and through other media channels. The species will be selected from the entire range of groups, representing all regions and detailing the threats to their existence. All kinds of species will be featured. We will start with some better known ones, including the Polar Bear, Hawksbill Turtle, Great White Shark and the Wandering Albatross. We will then move to cover plant groups, fungi and invertebrates in fact a variety of all life on earth, including both charismatic and obscure species.