Biodiversity.fi has been published! The biodiversity.fi website along with its Finnish language version Luonnontila.fi was published last Friday in a high-profile seminar in Helsinki.

The seminar, which was held at the prestigious House of the Estates in the heart of Helsinki, focused on the state of Finland's nature in 2010. In her opening address Minister of the Environment Ms. Paula Lehtomäki stressed the importance of developing and using more balanced measurements of well-being than mere GDP and its derivatives. Lehtomäki recommended that the Ministry of Finance use indicators such as the Genuine Progress Indicator in stead, which also take into account the development biological diversity.

Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, provided an international perspective into measuring and communicating biodiversity issues. The EEA coordinated SEBI2010 project has for the past couple of years been the leading effort in evaluating the development of biodiversity in Europe. One of the things professor McGlade put special emphasis on was the involvement of the general public in monitoring and discussing about the state of natural environments.