The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on earth and of the value biodiversity for our lives. The 2010 theme for the International Day for Biological Diversity is biodiversity, development and poverty alleviation.

The present decade could be called as disaster management decade. There have been a number of large mega geo events such as Sumatran earthquake of magnitude 9.3 in December 2004, and destructive earthquakes in India (Bhuj earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on 26 January 2001), Pakistan (Kashmir earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on 8 October 2005) and China (Sichuan earthquake of magnitude 8.0 on 12 May 2008).

Globally, many fish species are overexploited, and many stocks have collapsed. This crisis, along with increasing concerns over flow-on effects on ecosystems, has caused a reevaluation of traditional fisheries management practices, and a new ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) paradigm has emerged.

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Although progress has been made to reduce global incidence of drug-susceptible tuberculosis, the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis during the past decade threatens to undermine these advances. However, countries are responding far too slowly.