NEWS RELEASE
TROPICAL CONSERVANCY
Release date: 14 September 2000

MAURICE STRONG,
U.N. UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL,
SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL,
FORMER SECRETARY-GENERAL
JOINS EDITORIAL BOARD OF CANADIAN BIODIVERSITY JOURNAL

Maurice Strong, Under-Secretary-General, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General, Secretary-General of the 1992 Earth Summit, has joined the editorial board of "Biodiversity, Journal of Life on Earth," to serve as Honorary Editor.

A native of Manitoba, Canada, Mr. Strong has had a great variety of responsibilities in the world arena: Chairman of the Earth Council, which has just launched its Earth Charter; Ad visor to the President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn; Chair of the World Resources Institute; Co-Chairman of the Council of the World Economic Forum; and member of Toyota's International Advisory Board. As advisor to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, he is overseeing the new UN reforms. Past experience includes presidency of a major holding company, the Power Corporation of Canada at age 29.

But it is as Secretary General of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development that he was most influential and became widely known. The Convention on Biological Diversity was the crowning centrepiece of this conference. The Biodiversity Editorial Board hopes to draw upon this and his other many-sided experiences to advise the editorial team on its vision and contents.

Biodiversity is published in Canada and distributed to all corners of the world by Tropical Conservancy. It is a unique scientific magazine, specifically designed to present conservation and research information about the natural world to a broad audience of scientists, educators, policy makers, conservationists, science writers, naturalists, students and the public. Biodiversity aims to raise an appreciation and deeper understanding of species, and ecosystems, and of the inter connectedness of the living world responsible for sustaining the life-supporting systems on Earth to advocate conservation, preservation of species and habitats, and the integrity and wellness of the environment.

Biological diversity commonly known as "biodiversity" represents the immense differences between the estimated 30 million species of life forms presently inhabiting the Earth as well as between individuals of these species, in size, shapes, structures, genetic makeup, chemical properties, behaviors, habits and many related bioecological aspects. These differences are the results of billions of years of organic evolution, and are also the resources indispensable to the success and continuation of life on Earth. In fact, all life forms that make up biodiversity have lived, interacted, and depended on one another to exist, creating an intricate web of life which regulates climate, the environment, and the vital balance of nature.

Recent issues of Biodiversity have covered topics such as: genetically modified organisms; the terminator gene; diversity of spiders; conservation of forest ecosystems in Costa Rica; biological controls in Indian forestry; traditional agriculture in Mexico; conservation of tropical dry forests in Mexico; conservation of seahorses; organic farming; Hamilton's Frog, a critically endangered life form from New Zealand; the Whale Shark, the largest fish in the world, in waters of Venezuela. \par \par Tropical Conservancy is a Canadian charitable organization involved in preserving biological diversity and fostering biosystematic research needed to profitably manage resources and efficiently conserve the diversity of life.