The Project
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World Wide Views on Biodiversity
On September 15th 3000 citizens from 25 countries took part in a global event: “World Wide Views on Biodiversity”. The project engages ordinary citizens in the process of policymaking and awareness raising to sustain a living and healthy planet. About hundred citizens in each participating country attended day-long meetings to learn about biodiversity issues, make up their minds about them, and express their views. They all voted on a set of predefined questions and the answers were presented at COP11 in India in October 2012.
The results from the meetings carry unique information about the views of citizens in both developed and developing countries. Some of the following results state an interest and willingness about biodiversity from the participating citizens. Three out of four participating citizens worldwide say that they are “very concerned” about the loss of biodiversity. Over 90 percent of the participating citizens worldwide support the establishment of a legal framework to establish more marine protected areas in international waters.
Click here to get the Results Report.
The WWViews on Biodiversity project is aiming to contribute to the first strategic goal of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011 -2020 – making people aware of the values of biodiversity and giving them a platform to make their voices heard.
UN Biodiversity conference in India
At the UN Biodiversity conference in Hyderabad, India, a promising decision was taken.
The final decision text of the Eleventh Meeting of Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP11) page 95, calls on all countries to support projects such as the World Wide Views on Biodiversity.
This breakthrough was made possible due to the close cooperation between the Danish Ministry for the Environment, the UN Secretariat for Biodiversity and the Danish Board of Technology and financial support from VILLUM FOUNDATION.
The results of the first ever global citizen consultation on Biodiversity have been compiled in a report, which was handed over to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Secretariat for Biodiversity. The project and its results have been discussed at two Side-Events at COP11 by representatives of various country delegations, international organizations and NGOs, as well as some of the citizens who participated in WWViews meetings.
There has been a widespread agreement at the COP, that there is a need to involve the citizens of the world into the UN decision-making processes to enhance ownership of the decisions, thus increasing the likelihood that they will be carried out.
The WWViews Alliance is now looking into the possibility of organizing WWViews citizen consultations on Biodiversity on a more regular basis, i.e. every two years in connection with the biodiversity COP’s.
Photos at Flickr from COP11 in India, 8 to 19 October 2012.
Partners and Results
Learn more about the national and regional citizen meetings and the results of the WWViews on Biodiversity project.
