You're reading: Campaign to promote biodiversity protection launched in Ukraine

A new public information campaign entitled "We are cutting them from our life" calling on society to protect biodiversity will run in Ukraine from early June until late December 2010.

As part of the campaign, images of disappearing animals and plants will be displayed on big boards in the country’s largest cities, as well as alongside the main highways across Ukraine, United Nations Development Program Country Director in Ukraine Ricarda Rieger said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

To illustrate biodiversity loss in Ukraine the following rare species were selected: the brown bear, bison, golden eagle, sea horse, and the bird’s-eye primrose.

"We … want to draw attention to the uniqueness and beauty of nature, so that Ukraine can preserve its natural resources," Rieger said.

She noted that the United Nations had declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, as part scope of which the "We are cutting them from our life" campaign will be held.

Mykola Stetsenko, the First Deputy of the Head of the State Agency for Protected Areas of Ukraine, and the President of the All-Ukrainian Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine, in turn said: "The worsening of the state of biodiversity at present means negative social and political, economic, humanitarian events in the future."

The "We are cutting them from our life" campaign has been organized by the national non-government organization Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine, in cooperation with the United Nations in Ukraine.