Page 147 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

130 M. Adomßent and U. Stoltenberg

justice and are thus an example for the negotiation of sustainability principles.
Biodiversity can thus be seen as an exemplary area for the problems facing sustain-
ability communication.
With the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992, 191
signatory countries have so far underlined the importance of this issue, making it
one of the most important conservation and sustainability agreements in the world.
In 2002 the partners to this convention pledged to make a notable reduction in the
loss of biodiversity by 2010. This goal has not been achieved; the ninth Conference
of Parties (COP) in 2008 was used as an occasion for a number of countries to step
up their activities. Currently 107 countries have developed National Biodiversity
Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), a further 23 parties to the agreement were
asked to initiate corresponding measures by 2010. Germany has fulfilled its obliga-
tions arising out of signing the CBD, which it ratified in 1993, and produced a
‘National Strategy for Biological Diversity’ (BMU 2007). In order to increase pub-
lic awareness of the topic of biological diversity and its many aspects of communi-
cation and education, the United Nations has declared 2010 to be the International
Year of Biodiversity.
The diversity of life and the spatially specific qualities of nature are not new
objects of fascination. In illuminated medieval manuscripts realistic illustrations of
field flowers show the close attention paid to the domestic ‘little nature’. Profusely
illustrated volumes of baroque garden flowers show the diversity of flowers found
in these gardens and go beyond a purely biological interest in the taxonomy of
plants, although these botanic gardens did in fact have their origin as collections of
biological diversity representing the systematisation of the plant kingdom and
making a contribution to knowledge about the species. Human intervention in nature
through breeding was not undertaken alone through considerations of utility, but
was motivated – as can be seen in the variety of forms and colours of tulips or roses
– by aesthetic (and arguably also economic) reasons. And finally conservation and
the founding of conservation organisations have their roots in an engagement for
particular natural areas or species.
Sustainable development is a global vision that has led to a change in thinking
about biodiversity. It can no longer be seen primarily from an ecological or aesthetic
perspective but it is now a factor for sustainable development in a number of central
fields of action. And these are decisive for the quality of the future. Climate change,
as caused by the industrial production and processing of food, the type of land use,
the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers together with habits of consumption, is
closely related to imminent losses of biodiversity. This has made the use of biodi-
versity for global food production, medical and technological knowledge, for the
development opportunities of countries of the southern hemisphere a crucial issue
(Fig. 12.1).
Biodiversity is considered – similar to sustainable development – as too vague a
term for communication processes and as a result ‘biological diversity’ is used in its
place (Kitchin 2004). The definition of the Convention on Biological Diversity
shows its advantage in clarifying the primary importance given to the intimate
relationship between species diversity, genetic diversity and the conservation of