The Convention on Biological Diversity.

This page gives a brief history about the birth of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and also indicates the date on which Ghana ratified the Convention. Some of the milestone the Convention chalked have also been provided.

Release date	25/02/2008
Contributor	Eric Okoree

The Convention was opened for signature at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. It entered into force on 29th December, 1993 and currently has 188 members. Ghana was the 12th of the 157 countries which signed the Convention on Biological Diversity during the the Earth Summit, in June 1992. Subsequently, she has since August 1994, ratified the Convention .

The objectives of the Convention include:

The conservation of biological diversity;

The sustainable use of its components, and;

The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding.

Important Milestones by the Convention:

The CBD entered into force on 29th December, 1993, i.e. Ninety days after the 30th ratification.

Current number of Parties is 191, including Ghana.

The Ninth Conferences of the Parties to the Convention(COP´9) was held in Bonn, Germany from 19^th to 30^th May, 2008. Report of COP`9.

For more information please refer to:

Text of the Convention.

Frequently asked questions on the Convention.