News

The 19^th International Biodiversity Day celebrated

Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute has been celebrating 2020 International Biodiversity Day events through different preparations that took place from 18-22 May 2020. The theme of the year was “Our solutions are in nature “.

Even though, COVID 19 became a great challenge preventing peoples from coming together to one place, seminars and panel discussions took place via webinar mainly on 20 and 22 May, 2020. Various representatives of national and international community members took a part, including UNEP-(United Nation Environment Program)  staff  in Ethiopia, representatives of Environment , Forest and Climate Change Commission of Ethiopia , influential world long distance runners and renowned athletes and youth associations.

Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute has prepared basic awareness creating materials in different languages including, English that depict the status of biodiversity at national and international levels and some successful histories of biodiversity conservation in Ethiopia, and distributed via emails to different stake holders.

On 22 May, 2020, Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute Director General has presented Ethiopia’s Innovative and some successful approaches to Nature based solutions via webinar. At his initial speech he maximized that biodiversity is the wide variety and variability of plants, animals and microorganisms at different biological organizations. Biodiversity includes the air we breathe, food we eat, the medicine to heal from ailments and the water we drink. It is a means for the success of SDGs, Agenda 2030, and Paris agreements, etc. It was emphasized that, these diversities are under great threat globally. The globe has prepared biodiversity strategy and action plan for the years 2011-2020. Nonetheless, the outcomes indicate that the globe remained unsuccessful. IPBES 2019 indicates the impacts of ecosystem degradation, biodiversity exploitation, climate change, pollution of urban areas, marine, air, soil habitats, and the impacts of invasive alien species particularly in tropics on biological resources of the world.

The Director General has also pointed out the importance of transformational change to save the life on earth. Innovative Nature based solutions of  Ethiopia was presented by him including Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy ( that uses the wind,geothermal,and solar  energy ),the Ethiopia Green Legacy to which the country has dedicated to plant 20 billion trees with in the coming few years.

He also added the generation of energy from waste , use of non-fossil energy for the transport system especially simple rail ways , dry season wheat production using irrigation systems to ensure food security, restoration of degraded areas by mass mobilization and commitment of rural people to pay free labor for more than one month/year, community based forest and biosphere conservations, and agrobiodiversity conservation as well as the current urban greening approaches taking place in urban areas that mitigates the climate change and ensure food security were taken as some of the best experiences of nature based innovative approaches that Ethiopia is currently executing.

Finally, the 2020 IDB celebration was ended on 22 May, 2020, by sharing different food and sanitary materials to protect from COVID 19 to 100 poor households from yeka Sub City, Addis Ababa -Ethiopia who can’t make their own livelihood due to the COVOD 19 pandemic. Furthermore, Ethiopian biodiversity Institute celebrated the IDB by blood donation to the national blood bank, to ensure life’s saving approaches.

Ethiopia Celebrates International Day for Biological Diversity – 22 May

Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) observed the International Biodiversity Day through different events. This year’s International Biodiversity Day marked the beginning of the celebration of the 25^thanniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity which is planned to be held until the Sharm El-Sheikh’sUN Biodiversity Conference in November 2018.

The event at EBI began by a press release and by an exhibition session which was held in the institute’s compound and lasted four days. During the press release, the Institute’s Director General, Dr. Melesse Maryo, and the Deputy General Director, Dr. Feleke Woldeyes ,gave a briefing on the rich variety of life on Earth, its irreplaceable role with respect to the welfare and prosperity of the present and future generations, and the need for taking measures that help to mitigate and also avert the mounting pressure that harms the valuable resource.

It was underlined that, cognizant of the valuable contribution of biodiversity and also the threats the biological resource is confronted with, world’s nations ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 25 years. The Director General and his deputy indicated that the Convention has three pillar objectives: the conservation of biodiversity, its sustainable use and the equitable sharing of its benefits.

The commitment of Ethiopia to the convention, and major efforts made and achievements registered in line with realizing the CBD objectives were enumerated. Notifying that 25^thAnniversary of the CBD will be celebrated under the motto “Celebrating 25 years of action for Biodiversity”, they disclosed that the celebrations will include different activities including the exhibition show to be opened right after the press conference, symposium and panel discussions, film shows and radio talk shows, field visits,. It was made clear that the planned activities are tough to contribute towards awareness creation, at all levels of the public, on biodiversity related undertakings implemented at global, national and local levels.

As Dr. Melesse Maryo indicated, EBI, which is a focal point to the CBD, has been engaged in research undertaking that contribute to the conservation of the country’s biological diversity and associated knowledge; and also working towards strengthening participatory conservation, ensuring fair and equitable access and benefit sharing, and promoting sustainable utilization of biodiversity for sustainable development.

Dr. Melesse also added that the 25^th anniversary of the Convention presents a unique opportunity to highlight the achievement of its objectives at national and global levels. It also provides an opportunity to look towards the future. He also highlighted that as event will be celebrated for about eight months, it would create an opportunity to collaborate with a wide spectrum of stakeholders and thereby enhance synergy.

Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute celebrates the 16^th International Biodiversity day.

From May 22 to June 2, Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute celebrated the 16^th international biodiversity day having the theme “ Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism”. During the event, the Institute has conducted different activities.

On the first day of the event, the Institute Deputy Director Dr. Feleke Woldeyes made a press release for different government and privates Medias in the institute hall at Addis Ababa. Following the press release, the two weeks have been passed having different activities such as exhibition, visiting the forest and conducting a workshop. 

On a press release, Dr.Feleke explains the goal of the event is to raise the awareness of the public at regional and national level. He also noted that biodiversity is part of ecology; it is a base for tourism development. So, the government and public have to work hard to preserve biodiversity through carrying out awareness creations and conservations activities in a well-organized manner.

Following the press release, a number of students from different elementary, high school and university have visited the exhibition. On exhibition, most students told that they had no awareness so far, and they appreciate the activities that are being done by Institute. 

The third part of the event is visiting forest namely called Menagesha Suba Forest Park, the oldest park in Africa since the 15 Th century. During the visit, Director-General, Dr. Melese Maryo, said that through community participation we have to conserve such densely wooded forest parks. Forests are home for more than 80% of living things in the world. 

According to Dr. Melese, the Institute will work with stakeholders to focus on conservation and sustainable utilization for the benefit of present and future generation.

Finally, June 2, 2017, workshop has been conducted, at Institute Hall and Dr.Melese welcomed the participant from different stakeholders. On the workshop, three presentations entitled “Biodiversity and sustainable truism, Ethiopian biodiversity institute and it's activated and mainstreaming incentives for biodiversity conservation” have been presented. 

 As the organizer of the workshop Dr.Melese said the workshop provides an opportunity for the participants to share experiences and lessons learned in the implementation of the conservation.

The third part of the event is visiting forest namely called Menagesha Suba Forest Park, the oldest park in Africa since the 15 Th century. During the visit, Director-General, Dr. Melese Maryo, said that through community participation we have to conserve such densely wooded forest parks. Forests are home for more than 80% of living things in the world. 

 According to Dr. Melese, the Institute will work with stakeholders to focus on conservation and sustainable utilization for the benefit of present and future generation.

Finally, June 2, 2017, workshop has been conducted, at Institute Hall and Dr.Melese welcomed the participant from different stakeholders. On the workshop, three presentations entitled “Biodiversity and sustainable truism, Ethiopian biodiversity institute and it's activated and mainstreaming incentives for biodiversity conservation” have been presented. 

As an organizer of the workshop Dr.Melese said the workshop provides an opportunity for the participants to share experiences and lessons learned in the implementation of the conservation.