ABSTRACT
The loss of biodiversity is probably the most critical global environmental threat alongside climate change. With the Convention on Biological Diversity during the World Summit in 1992, the United Nations accepted the challenge to prevent species loss, and declared the ambitious 2010 target which reads as ‘to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss’. The importance of the target was underlined by its incorporation in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 7(2)) and by the proclamation of an International Year of Biodiversity in 2010 (United Nations General Assembly 2000).
