UNESCO's Executive Board Calls for Developing a Biodiversity Initiative [viewed]
19 May 2011: The Executive Board of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has confirmed its call for UNESCO to develop a coherent Biodiversity Initiative encompassing all areas of competence and work of UNESCO – natural and social sciences, education, culture and communication. The Initiative will focus on the underlying drivers of biodiversity erosion and loss, and will encompass actions aimed at providing assistance to UNESCO member States underpinning the implementation of the UN system-wide Strategic Plan for Biodiversity.
23 May 2011: The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) was celebrated around the world on 22 May 2011 under the theme of forest biodiversity, as a contribution to 2011 – International Year of Forests.
20 May 2011: The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in consultation with members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), has announced the launch of a web-based tool to support the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity, based on the TEMATEA platform.
18 May 2011: The May 2011 edition of the UN-REDD Programme Newsletter features an article on Asia Pacific and Latin America cross-regional REDD+ exchange, which highlights that delegates from Viet Nam visited Mexico and Ecuador to learn from those countries' experience of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and community-led forest management, while Mexico and Ecuador learned from Viet Nam's experience in establishing a national REDD+ Programme.
16 May 2011: The South-South Cooperation programme of the Global Mechanism (GM) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has launched the new website www.scopeacp.net, which seeks to provide tools to enhance the use of existing resources as well as to increase access to new and innovative financial resources for sustainable land management (SLM).
20 May 2011: A meeting to follow up on the 10th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took place in Nadi, Fiji, from 16-20 May 2011, on the theme of "Implementing the Nagoya Outcomes: Review and Planning Meeting."
13 May 2011: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the appointment of Amina Mohamed (Kenya) as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
11 May 2011: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP)/Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) Secretariat, in affiliation with the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn, reports that there have been more than 60 submissions for the UNEP/CMS Thesis Award 2011. 
6 May 2011: The UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has released a report titled “REDDy-Set-Grow: Opportunities and roles of financial institutions in forest carbon markets,” which stresses that the financial sector must step up its engagement in the emerging green market, and proposes improved regulation to this end.
