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Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan: "Protection of biological diversity is vital for the life and health of Israel's residents. We are obligated to protect them from the threat of uncontrolled development." Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan and experts in the ministry will unveil Israel's National Biodiversity Plan in this year's Jerusalem Environment and Nature Conference which will take place on May 17, 2010. The conference, organized by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nature and Parks Authority, Tel Aviv University and the Jerusalem Municipality, will be entirely dedicated to the subject of biological diversity. The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity, inviting action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth. Israel is proud to join the effort with the publication of its National Biodiversity Plan. The plan is designed to promote action for the conservation of biodiversity so that it may continue to provide the ecosystem services which contribute to human well-being and assure humankind's very existence. Biological diversity, or in short biodiversity, includes the entirety of living organisms, with an emphasis on the diversity of their form and function. It is a major component of all ecosystems, which, in turn, provide benefits, called ?ecosystem services,? that are invaluable to human well-being and to development, and include the provision of food, fiber and medicines, air quality, drinking and irrigation water and a suitable climate. Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan: "Uncontrolled development in Israel harms biodiversity and leads to damages which are difficult and, at times, impossible to repair, and which impact on the quality of life and well-being of the public in Israel. Therefore, protection of biodiversity must be a top priority of development because biodiversity underpins sustainable development. We, along with the rest of the world, are preparing to protect this biodiversity by means of a series of recommendations included in the national plan which clarify how we are to conduct ourselves more wisely in the face of these threats." The head of the Environment and Nature Protection Division of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Nir Papai has stated: "The main threat to biodiversity is the transformation of open spaces which sustain habitats for the different forms of biodiversity into built, agricultural and infrastructure areas, to the point where the remaining open space is insufficient to sustain biodiversity to the extent necessary to supply vital ecosystem services. Only a policy based on the expansion of existing localities rather than the establishment of new ones and adherence to principles of wise and efficient planning will prevent the continued risk to our biodiversity. At the Jerusalem Environment and Nature Conference we will discuss means of implementing the plan and advancing its principles as soon as possible." Main Points of the National Plan Israel's National Biodiversity Plan addresses the need for adopting economic incentives, advancing research, improving planning, promoting education and information, encouraging legislation and its enforcement, and actively engaging in the international arena of biodiversity conservation. All these constitute a package of measures for advancing conservation and thus securing the functionality of the Israeli biodiversity in providing services to the people of Israel. The steps proposed for the protection and conservation of biodiversity include: - Integration in planning - taking account of the needs of biodiversity in providing ecosystem services in planning processes.
- Monitoring - developing systems for monitoring changes in biodiversity and in the provision of its services which enable follow-up of the causes of these changes and their results.
- Legislation - promoting legislative changes, including economic incentives for the protection of biodiversity.
- Awareness - increasing awareness of the importance of biodiversity to each and every one of Israel's citizens, including public representatives and government ministries.
- International cooperation - participating in the international arena in increasing the knowledge base concerning the functioning of biodiversity and the means of protecting it, in order to position Israel among countries for whom biodiversity conservation is a foremost concern.
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