ISSN 1759-8036

Issue 13

February 2012

Issue 8

December 2010

NEWS FROM THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON

News from the Linnean Society of London – A living forum for biology

The International Year

of Biodiversity: What

CONTENTS

Happens Next? THE UNUSUAL RESCUE OF

T

A Linnean Medal

he International Year of Biodiversity – IYOB – conjures

up visions of great celebrations of the diversity of

life on Earth. This year has indeed been marked by

an incredibly rich set of activities, both here at the Linnean

p2 President’s Greeting

Society, in London, in the UK and worldwide, designed to

concentrate minds and hearts on the challenge of conserv-

ing habitats, species and genes in the years ahead. 2010 was

Field Trip 2012

the year of targets – the target adopted by the Conference

of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in

2002 was to “achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the

New Exhibition

current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and

national levels as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to

Edwin Stephen Goodrich

Memembership Benefits

the benefit of all life on earth”. It is widely accepted that the

© Dennis Taylor

target was not met in its entirety – but targets are aspira-

tions, there were good news stories as well.

Here at the Society we began the year with a talk about rein-

(1868–1946) is widely

regarded as Britain’s

troduction of beavers to Scotland, a real success story; later on

p3 Anchoring Biodiversity

in conjunction with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee we

discussed the five main drivers of biodiversity loss identified by the

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and prioritised which needed

The Big Give

most urgent attention. Our annual joint biodiversity policy lecture

with the Systematics Association was a passionate case for linking

biodiversity loss and other planetary crises, or we would need to

greatest comparative

anatomist. Whether he

“rent a bigger planet”! The concept of evidence-based conservation

– documenting what actually works on the ground – was received

with great enthusiasm at a packed summer evening meeting.

p4 Sir James Edward Smith

I began my own year with a meeting at UNESCO in Paris, one

step in setting the next sets of targets. The TEEB report on the was studying vertebrate

document the diversity of life on earth.

economics of biodiversity brought the real cost of losing the rest When the roadshow that is the COP in Nagoya dies down and

embryos, invertebrate

of life on the planet home – we tend to take ecosystem services new targets for 2020 or 2030 are set, new policies developed and

underpinned by biodiversity so much for granted that it took new partnerships established, we must not forget biodiversity, not

p6 The Chagos Archipelago

a major initiative to bring their true value in monetary terms to

the fore. Conferences were held throughout the year, all over the

think that because we had a year of biodiversity we can now move

on to something new. Biodiversity underpins ecosystem services

world to develop new targets for the conservation of biodiversity

Professor Lynn Margulis

– these culminated in the COP in Nagoya, Japan, happening as I anatomy or even

upon which the human species, named Homo sapiens or “thinking

man” by Linnaeus, depends. IYOB was not just a celebration of the

© THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON/LEONIE BERWICK

write. In Nagoya, the meeting of Target 1 of the Global Strategy diversity of life on earth, but a platform upon which to develop

fossils, Goodrich had a

for Plant Conservation (GSPC) was announced – botanists have thoughts and actions to maintain a diverse and dynamic planet.

achieved a working list of all plant species, a true global effort. IYOB was only a beginning.

This year also saw the “completion” of the Census of Marine Life, Dr Sandra Knapp flS

meticulous eye for detail

another incredible effort by the scientific community to assess and

p8 Beatrix Potter

Commmunications and was remarkably

Manager skilled at illustrating his

Events

work with both accuracy

© THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON

and beauty. Indeed,

Don’t miss... Goodrich originally

20 APRIL 2012 trained as artist rather

Beatrix Potter: than a scientist, and it

The Mycologist was for this skill that the

great Sir Ray Lankester

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first brought the young

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Goodrich to Oxford as A Linnean Society Gold Medal

BOOKING FORM * CLICK HERE TO READ ON *

his assistant in 1892.