(Vientiane Times) The Water Resources and Environment Administration (WREA) is urging public and private sectors and international organisations to unite in conservation efforts.

Such efforts will conserve the balance of nature and improve environmental management to better protect Laos's wide-ranging biodiversity.

To address these aims, WREA cooperated with the United Nations Development Progame (UNDP), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Forestry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to host a workshop on biodiversity conservation in Vientiane on 19 May 2010.

One objective of the workshop was to raise awareness of biodiversity conservation among students at the National University of Laos's Faculty of Forestry and Environment and relevant sectors ahead of World Environment Day on June 5.

The theme of events to mark the day this year is ‘Many Species, One World, One Future'.

At the workshop, WREA Deputy Head Sisavath Vithaxay spoke of the importance of biodiversity to sustainable socio-economic development.

He explained biodiversity is a basic factor in the livelihood and income of rural communities, of which there are many in Laos in forest and mountain environments.

People in such communities depend on biodiversity and natural resources for life as well as to earn a modest living selling non-timber forestry products, he said.

Natural resources are a key factor in economic growth, generating 66 percent of the national income, including from mining and forestry. At the local level these resources have a huge impact on the quality of life of the nation's poor. Topics covered at the workshop included biodiversity management policy and strategy, as well as a presentation by UNDP on conserving biodiversity in the face of climate change.

A National Biodiversity Report released in 2004 indicated that Laos has up to 11,000 species of floral plants, 166 species of reptiles and amphibians, 700 species of birds and more than 100 mammalian species.

Of great importance to national food security are the 500 fish species native to the Mekong River and the country's other waterways, as well as over 13,000 rice varieties grown in Laos.

Biodiversity is under continual threat from climate change, misuse of natural resources, poor waste management, and bad land allocation decisions that favour agriculture production over declining numbers of species.

Recorded biodiversity is about 1.75 million species worldwide, while it is estimated that 13 million species may exist.

Laos ratified the UN treaty on biodiversity conservation in 1992.