Popularising the International Day of Biodiversity In cooperation with the Nature Protection Board the Latvian Fund for Nature invites the society with the help of several measures to turn their attention to the International Day of Biodiversity – May 22. Popularising the International Day of Biodiversity In cooperation with the Nature Protection Board the Latvian Fund for Nature invites the society with the help of several measures to turn their attention to the International Day of Biodiversity – May 22. In the framework of the cooperative project on May 22 an educative seminar for writing journalists about nature topics takes places. Furthermore the “Natural Diversity Newspaper” is published. On the media training seminar – excursion on May 22 journalists will have the possibility to obtain new knowledge about biological diversity in forests, on meadows and at peoples’ living places. The participants of the seminar, which will be lead by the experts Valda Baroniòa, Ivars Kabucis and Mârtiòð Kalniòð, will get to know the Kaïíugravi’s and Koðsala’s meadows in the municipality of Allaþi, where they will learn to judge the diversity of species in biologically valuable areas and to compare this diversity to places intensively used by people. In the same time the participants will learn what every one of us can do in his every day’s life to promote the preservation of natural diversity both in countryside and city. Noticing the International Day of Biological Diversity, also the “Natural Diversity Newspaper” is published – a special issue of the newspaper “Latvijas Avîze”. It is devoted to manifold topics connected to natural diversity and its protection, for example, biologically valuable meadows, management of old trees, biological diversity and invasive species, influence of tourism in protected nature territories, etc. The newspaper also gives practical advice for the protection of natural diversity. The authors are specialists of the Latvian Fund for Nature and the Nature Protection Board as well as professionals of other fields. All subscribers of “Latvijas Avîze” will get the “Natural Diversity Newspaper”; together with the newspaper it will also be possible to obtain it at all newsagents. 15 years of the Rio de Janeiro Convention Every year on May 22 all over the world the International Day of Biological Diversity is taking place. This is connected to the Rio de Janeiro “Convention on Biological Diversity”, which was adopted in 1992. With this the signing states took the obligation to protect and use biological diversity sustainably and to share experiences and technologies connected to its protection and use. Nature does not know political borders, - plant and animal species, that formed during millions of years, are spread and live independently from states’ borders. Hence with the help of international agreements it is possible to influence processes in the world effectively and to take care of the preservation of natural values for the coming generations. One of the basic statements of the Rio de Janeiro Convention prescribes, that we are morally responsible for the coming generations: in the past centuries in the result of human actions the natural diversity has diminished, several plant and animal species have vanished. To stop this rapid movement towards uniformity, all over the world one principle is acknowledged – no generation has the right to leave fewer natural resources to the coming generations than it has got from the its prior generation. Latvia has ratified the Rio de Janeiro Convention in 1995. Conforming to the demands of the convention, Latvia has worked out a national strategy for the protection of biological diversity. The Latvian Fund for Nature and the Nature Protection Board invite you to contribute to the preservation of natural diversity! Recommendations, how in every day’s life can be cared about the preservation of biological diversity (in Latvian only): Newspaper devoted to the International Day of Biodiversity – special insert of the newspaper “Latvijas Avîze” (four pages, in Latvian only): Written by Ilze Salna, Latvian Fund for Nature and manager of the project “Popularisation of the International Day of Biological Diversity”. Translated by Richard Kaatz | 
