This week the Secretary of State Caroline Spelman visited the newly opened Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum. The Centre will be a hub for amateur naturalists, enthusiasts and other societies to study British wildlife.
The Secretary of State talked to staff, looked at the exhibits and discussed the range of work the Museum does to support Defra’s objectives. Defra is part-funding the Natural History Museum to establish and run a UK partnership for the International Year of Biodiversity - IYB-UK. This now has over 370 partners who are promoting biodiversity issues to the public, ahead of important global biodiversity talks in Nagoya in October.
On Saturday 22 May the Museum will be holding a special festival to celebrate the International Day for Biodiversity. Defra Minister Richard Benyon will be attending on the day. The event is free and open to everyone, so go along if you can and meet the Museum’s world-renowned scientists, explore the wildlife garden and enjoy music and theatre performances celebrating biodiversity.