The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)—through its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB)—will lead the Philippine celebration of the 2023 International Day for Biological Diversity (IDBD) with the theme, “From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity.”
Since the year 2000, the IDBD has been globally celebrated every 22nd of May of the year to raise awareness on the values, relevance and importance of biodiversity to human lives and all life forms.
This year’s theme reflects both the celebratory nature of what has been achieved in conserving global biodiversity, as well as the urgency of what still needs to be undertaken especially with the vision for increased proportion of protected natural areas to sustain nature processes critical for human survival, advocated under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
As a member-state of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the Philippines joins the 196 other countries around the world in celebrating the IDBD on May 22, 2023.
This year’s celebration will highlight initiatives and partnerships in building back biodiversity in protected areas and urban ecosystems as the DENR-BMB braces for more ambitious commitments to restore ecosystems at the national and global scale in pursuit of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The event will be held at the DENR-BMB Training Center within the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center in Quezon City on May 22 at 3:00-5:00 PM and will be live-streamed through the official Facebook pages of the DENR and DENR-BMB.
Representatives from relevant government agencies, partners from the private sector, non-government organizations, donor agencies and other support groups will gather to celebrate the country’s milestone on biodiversity conservation and reflect on the critical actions needed in embracing the new biodiversity targets under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The 2023 IDBD national celebration is co-organized by the USAID-Sustainable Interventions for Biodiversity, Oceans and Landscapes (SIBOL) project with the DENR-UNDP/GEF Project on Integrated Approach to Management of Major Biodiversity Corridors in the Philippines (BD Corridor Project), DENR-UNDP- Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) project, DENR-UNDP- Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Project and the FPE-UNDP/GEF Seventh Operational Phase of the Small Grants Programme in the Philippines (SGP7) project.
All DENR regional and field offices will lead the celebration of the IDBD 2023 in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
The IDBD celebration calls for “concrete actions from the whole Filipino community because protecting biodiversity involves all of us!” (PR/DENR)