The Convention on Biological Diversity in the Process of Globalisation and the Opportunities for a Democratic Politics of Biodiversity

The accelerated disappearance of species worldwide and the rise in the technolo-gical possibilities for the economic valorisation of plants and animals, particularly through gene and information technology, has led to resistance against these de-velopments in the last two decades. A variety of different actors are engaged in this field, including non-state environmental organisations, organisations critical of globalisation, national, including statelevel actors, and organisations operating internationally. Following the end of the Cold War the international diplomatic sphere has opened up to problems connected to the conservation of biodiversity. In this context the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) emerged. From the 19th to 30th May 2008 the Ninth Member State Conference of the CBD will take place in Germany. Many actors from the education, environmental and development sectors, as well as academia, are most likely to accompany this event, making information on the many-facetted issues of this topic available in the public domain. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation aims to influence the deba-tes through its educational work. The political handling of the problems of biodi