Track 1. Biodiversity:

Biodiversity, the variety of life found in a place on Earth often the total variety of life on Earth. Biodiversity is the variation among living organisms from different sources including terrestrial, marine and desert ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are a part.  It is the most complex and important feature of our planet. Without biodiversity, life would not sustain.

Track 2. Climate Change:

Climate change, periodic modification of Earth climate brought about as a result of changes in the atmosphere as well as interactions between the atmosphere and various other geologic, chemical, biological, and geographic factors within the Earth system.

Track 3. Ecosystem Diversity:

Ecosystem diversity deals with the variations in ecosystems within a geographical location and its overall impact on human existence and the environment. Ecosystem diversity can also refer to the variety of ecosystems present in a biosphere. An ecosystem is the community of living organisms as well as the physical components of an environment such as water, soil, and climate. It is not the diversity of species within an ecosystem.

Track 4. Marine Biodiversity:

Marine biodiversity is valued for its direct utility for people, the ecosystem services it provides, and its intrinsic worth. Marine ecosystems are subject to a variety of anthropogenic threats including disease, pollution, climate change, habitat alteration, overexploitation, and invasive species. Marine biodiversity is important to protect because today, just as always, humans are dependent on the Earth's resources for their livelihood, health and wellbeing In Belize, efforts have been made to conserve the incredible biodiversity that exists in the country.

Track 5. Species Diversity:

Species diversity, the taxonomic variety of living organisms, is one of the three principal levels of
biological diversity which include genetic diversity within species, species diversity and ecosystem or community, ecological diversity.

 

Track 6. Genetic Diversity:

Genetic diversity refers to the diversity or genetic variability within species. Each individual species possesses genes which are the source of its own unique features: In human beings, for example, the huge variety of people's faces reflects each person's genetic individuality. The term genetic diversity also covers distinct populations of a single species, such as the thousands of breeds of different dogs or the numerous varieties of roses. The greater the genetic diversity, the greater the opportunity for resiliency to future climate change.

Track 7. Bioscience:

Bioscience is a diverse field of study and industry with a common thread applying knowledge to develop biological solutions that sustain, restore, and improve the quality of life for humans, plants, and animals in our world.

Track 8. Biodiversity Conservation:

Biodiversity Conservation deals with all aspects of biodiversity conservation with special emphasis on active conservation and the development of new methods to solve human conservation problems, improving the rational use of the biodiversity by humankind. The scope of this Section is wide and multidisciplinary and embraces all life forms, providing a forum for examining the conflict between sustainable development and human dependence on biodiversity in such fields as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, green energies, infrastructures, environmental management, species conservation, and solutions for the sustainable use of biodiversity.

Track 9. Restoration Ecology:

Restoration ecology is the study of renewing a degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystem through active human intervention. In many ecosystems, humans have altered local native populations of plants and animals, introduced invasive species, converted natural communities to extractive use such as agriculture or mining, fouled waters, and degraded soil resources.

Track 10. Overexploitation:

The unsustainable use of natural resources and overexploitation, which occurs when harvesting exceeds reproduction of wild plant and animal species, continues to be a major threat to biodiversity. Overexploitation means harvesting species from the wild at rates faster than natural populations can recover. Overfishing and overhunting are both types of overexploitation. Currently, about a third of the world's endangered vertebrates are threatened by overexploitation.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services are generally treated as public goods, with no price and no market. In economic terms they are ‘externalities’, i.e. costs not reflected in the market price of goods or services. This has contributed to widespread exploitation and degradation of natural infrastructure. There is growing recognition that this is harming not only human well-being but also the economy, for example when businesses, individuals or governments are forced to invest in expensive technologies to replace natural services, such as flood protection, that have been lost through poor ecological management. 

The establishment of markets for biodiversity, ecosystem services and areas of natural habitat is a potentially powerful way of internalising these traditionally externalised costs. One example of this is biodiversity or habitat banking: this involves the trading of credits created by restoration activities to offset the damage caused by development. Thus, the principle of no-net-loss of biodiversity can be sustained whilst also stimulating economic growth. Such systems may be voluntary (generally resulting in sporadic and inconsistent outcomes), or supported by a government policy framework and incentives. Many countries employ some form of compensation or offset scheme under their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) laws, and in recent years the number of initiatives putting this into practice has been growing.