Bonn, 27 September 2015- With 150 world leaders gathering in New York to attend the UN Sustainable Development Summit, the heads of the seven Conventions and Treaties that form the Biodiversity Liaison Group have issued a statement.

The Summit taking place at the UN HQ in New York has adopted an ambitious new agenda for sustainable development which should lead to action from national governments and the international community to promote prosperity and well-being.

About half of the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are directly environmental in focus or address sustainability of natural resources: poverty, health, food and agriculture, water and sanitation, human settlements, energy, climate change, sustainable consumption and production, oceans, and terrestrial ecosystems. Over 86 targets concern environmental sustainability, including at least one in each of the 17 SDGs.

The seven conventions constituting the Biodiversity Liaison Group are: the Convention on Biological Diversity the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the World Heritage Convention and the International Plant Protection Convention.