Biodiversity Month

Event type: Other - Lecture/Panel Discussion
Hosted by: National Museum of Natural History
Date: May 22, 2002
Time: 12:00-2:00 p.m. EST
Where: National Museum of Natural History, Baird Auditorium - Washington, DC
Cost: Free

In celebration of May, Biodiversity Month, the Smithsonian Institution will hold a panel presentation revisiting the 1986 National Forum on Biodiversity. Biodiversity Month is a program of International Biodiversity Observation Year (IBOY) and the United Nations International Day for Biological Diversity. The panel will bring together for a second time some of the scientists who have shaped the biodiversity debate over the last sixteen years and will provide a historical perspective to current debates. The event will take place on May 22, 2002 at 12:00-2:00 p.m. in Baird Auditorium at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

The panel presentation will feature video segments and speakers from the 1986 Forum including Moderator, Thomas Lovejoy (The Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment), Scott Miller also representing Terry Erwin (both from the National Museum of Natural History), Leonard Hirsch (Smithsonian Institution), James Nations (Conservation International), Elizabeth Losos (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute), and Michael Vecchione (NOAA) and will address issues that have continued to be at the forefront of the biodiversity research and policy agenda. Fran Sharples, representative from the National Academy of Sciences, co-sponsor of the first Forum, will provide the national perspective addressing “Results to Date in National Academy of Science Programs Related to Biodiversity”. Other topics, many of which were considered in depth at the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 6) earlier this year, include: Scientific Initiatives Since the Forum—Measuring, Monitoring and Bioinformatics and International Steps to Protect Biodiversity. A focus of this retrospective will be including the marine environment in discussion, a topic covered in the first Forum mainly through film programming.

Smithsonian NMNH 1986 National Forum on Biodiversity: Current Perspectives