The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is finally launched and the first 30,000 pages of this online resource for the biodiversity of life is available to the public. The EOL is the brainchild of renowned biologist, E. O. Wilson, and is the beginning of a 10-year effort between scientists and the public to document, identify and understand the world’s biodiversity. Professor Wilson says:

“The launch of the Encyclopedia of Life will have a profound and creative effect in science… It aims not only to summarize all that we know of Earth’s life forms, but also to accelerate the discovery of the vast array that remain unknown. This great effort promises to lay out new directions for research in every branch of biology.”

The EOL “will create ‘one-stop shopping’ for authoritative information, offering the world at large a better understanding of the planet and all its inhabitants. It is being assembled by a growing partnership of individual scientists, international organizations, technology leaders, and prestigious research institutions. But soon anyone will be able to provide information for consideration, too.” In the later part of this year, the public will also be able to contribute text, videos and images about a species.

Check out details and learn more about biodiversity at the EOL website.

Source: Encyclopedia of Life. Image attribution: Encyclopedia of Life press release; Encyclopedia of Life - Singapore parrotfish.

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Countdown 2010 is a great initiative by The World Conservation Union (IUCN) to protect biodiversity around the world and reduce biodiversity loss by 2010, a commitment made by governments at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. China partners are the latest to join this initiative. Read more from the news release by IUCN below:

China starts countdown to save biodiversity by 2010

20 September 2007

As the rate of biodiversity loss accelerates worldwide, civil society organizations and governments are joining forces to fight the global extinction crisis. On September 7 in Beijing, twenty Chinese and international organizations signed the Countdown 2010 declaration, committing themselves to additional efforts to reduce biodiversity loss by the year 2010. Read the rest

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