According to available data, over 40% of amphibians and over 33% of sea mammals are faced with the crisis of extinction since 1900.

And nearly 13 million hectares of forests keep vanishing, and about 3.1 billion ㎥of trees are used as timber and firewood per year.

Such crises faced by the world community are related with biodiversity, whether they are direct or indirect. Therefore, protection of biodiversity presents itself as an important problem vital to the survival of mankind and the sustained development of the economy.

In June 1992 the “UN Conference on the Environment and Development” was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in which “Biodiversity Agreement”, an international agreement, was adopted. And the UN General Assembly held in December 2000 set every May 22 as the day of international biodiversity.

In the past days our country has promoted various activities for the protection of biodiversity.

First of all, it has provided legal foundations for the protection of biodiversity.

It adopted various laws, including “The Law of the DPRK on Protecting Useful Animals” in November 1998 and “The Law of the DPRK on Nature Reserve” in September 2009, and designated the period from March to July as the period for protecting useful animals, and April and July as the months for protecting marine resources.

Many reserves for the biosphere, animals, plants, migratory birds and marine resources have been created in different parts of the country, and regular investigations are being made for their management.

Special efforts are being directed to protecting the animals designated as natural living monuments and other rare and endangered species and increasing their population.

The country published various books such as “Red List” about endangered species of animals and plants in 2004 for the protection of its biological resources and gave wide publicity to them.

International exchanges and cooperation aimed at the protection of biodiversity have also been actively conducted in our country.

The DPRK signed the “Biodiversity Agreement” of the “UN Conference on the Environment and Development” held in Brazil in 1992 and became the signatory to the agreement in October 1994. Since then, it has endeavoured to carry out its commitments.

And it has made investigations of the wetlands in the east and west coasts in cooperation with international organizations and NGOs in New Zealand, Germany and other countries.

The theme of Biodiversity Day for this year is “Our Solutions Are in Nature ”.

Kim Ji Hyang, researcher of the Central Committee of the Nature Conservation Union of Korea