Setting the ball rolling: global communication on biodiversity

The joint global initiative Earth Hour is getting the conversation on biodiversity started around the world with its tagline #connect2earth.

The Earth Hour event on 24 March 2018 will also mark the launch of the international communication initiative that forms part of the project entitled ‘Up-scaling biodiversity communication to achieve Aichi Target 1’. The project is being funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Environment Ministry (BMU), and implemented by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature).

Between now and late 2020, the WWF project will be teaming up with the Secretariat of the  Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other partners to drum up at least three billion digital impressions and provide information on biodiversity to at least one billion people with the help of Earth Hour and UN thematic days related to biodiversity , high-level events involving decision-makers from politics and business..

Adopting the tagline ‘connect2earth’, the project will use the online platform www.connect2earth.org and social media to inspire people around the world to find out about biological diversity in their region, the threats to local species and the links between climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Over the next three years, the project will focus on ten selected countries: Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Viet Nam. Together, these countries are home to half the world’s population and form a large – and, thanks to the wide network of WWF, readily accessible – target group.

This year will mark the twelfth anniversary of the Earth Hour. Set up by WWF in Australia, it grew to become one of the biggest joint global initiatives on climate change mitigation in just a few years. Each year, over 7,000 cities across 184 countries around the globe switch off the lights at well-known landmarks and in other buildings between 20:30 and 21:30 local time to send out a visible message about protecting the planet. WWF uses the wide coverage attracted by this event to raise awareness about the value of biodiversity all around the world.