Tomorrow is World Biodiversity Day and despite efforts around the globe, studies show that biodiversity – the rich variety of life on this planet – is diminishing at a startling rate. An innovative EU campaign to highlight this message is engaging thousands of people across the European Union and beyond. The campaign website has already received more than half a million visits, while over 56,000 people have shown their support for the campaign on Facebook.

People of all ages are connecting with nature through the biodiversity campaign's interactive website and social media. In the first six weeks of the campaign the website, which is available in all EU languages, registered more than 550,000 page views with the number growing daily. Some 56,000 people from more than 120 countries have declared their support on the biodiversity Facebook pages.

Built around the slogan, ‘Biodiversity – we are all in this together’, the campaign aims to raise awareness of the problem of biodiversity loss and show the implications of these losses in our daily lives. The campaign has an educational component that reveals the benefits biodiversity brings, and stresses in particular the idea of ecosystem services and the dangers of their disappearance. The theme that returns repeatedly is the idea of connectivity and interdependence.

The latest element to be added is a powerful video clip which sends a stark message about the urgent need for action. The clip aims to highlight how the loss of any link in the chain of life, however insignificant it may appear, can upset the whole balance of nature.

The campaign has a special focus on countries where action is considered especially useful. It comes few weeks later of the publication of the special Eurobarometer that revealed the desinformation of European citizens on biodiversity: the new "Attitudes towards biodiversity" survey reveals that only 38% of Europeans know the meaning of the term. Successful launches have taken place in Spain, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Italy with PR actions and street art. Family activity events will also take place in all six focus countries as part of World Biodiversity Day celebrations.

From awareness to action

As well as raising awareness, the campaign is also focusing on making citizens more aware of the role they can play in slowing and preventing biodiversity loss. This aims to get people doing something – on their own or in projects – to protect and care for nature.

The website is already actively engaging the public in learning about how we are interconnected with nature. As well as making friends with living organisms and species, members of the public can also create a biodiversified image of themselves on Facebook.

The hope is that by discovering more about the natural world which we so often take for granted, we will learn to take greater care of it. This EU-wide campaign coincides with the UN's designation of 2010 as the Year of Biodiversity