Whistler2020 Accelerated is a series of columns I am writing for WHISTLERtoday: Your Inside Edge to the 2010 Winter Games. To subscribe to the daily newsletter, please sign up on www.whistler2010.com
2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations in order to halt or significantly stop the rate at which the world is losing its biodiversity (or biological diversity). Whistler has responded to this call by initiating its own challenge, the Whistler 2010 Biodiversity Challenge that will roll out this year.
It began today, with a press conference at the Whistler Media Centre, with the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW), the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the VANOC.
The health of an ecosystem is measured in terms of its biodiversity, and biodiversity is essential for human health and survival. As a destination resort, Whistler is aware that halting or stopping the loss of biodiversity is important to not only the locals but also the two million people who visit every year. People come here for the natural beauty and recreational opportunities of the Coast Mountains.
Whistler as a community is a place of action. In order to help stop the loss of biodiversity, Whistler has expanded its boundaries, not to develop, but to effectively contain development and restrict sprawl, has catalogued 2100 species through the Whistler Biodiversity Project, developed a Protected Areas Network strategy, and hosts an annual event called Bioblitz – a 24 hour race against the clock to count as many species as possible. Cheakamus Crossing (the Athletes’ Village) is built on a remediated brownfield and was moved inside municipal boundaries to prevent sprawl.
More importantly, what will this community do moving forward? As a part of the challenge, Whistler will announce a high profile initiative that will permanently protect a key habitat area, and will be challenging partners in the Sea to Sky corridor to come together and ensure that habitat is protected and biodiversity is celebrated.
You can learn more about Whistler’s commitment to the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity by visiting public displays opening Sunday (Feb. 14) at: The Squamish-Lil’wat Cultural Centre, The Roundhouse Lodge on Whistler Mountain, RMOW Hall, Whistler Canada Olympic House and at the Lost Lake Warming Hut.
Really, what matters is what we all decide to do. Make this the year you help stop the loss of global biodiversity right here at home.
