The Biological Conservation Res-earch Foundation has appealed to the government and the public to think and act effectively against the loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation.

The United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity in a bid to help raise awareness on the importance of biodiversity all over the world.

Bicref said when governments signed an international agreement in 2002 to work towards reducing biodiversity loss by 2010 they had shown a sign of goodwill for mankind's future welfare as loss of biodiversity meant loss of future options for mankind's survival and development.

The NGO said the government had this obligation too. However, due to various reasons, the natural environment in Malta had not found the support it urgently needed.

Bicref has produced an international award-winning, one-hour-long DVD documentary, entitled Waves Of Life, to help raise awareness on biodiversity and to show the effects of biodiversity loss.

The documentary was aired on local and international television channels and is available from Bicref and Agenda bookshops with proceeds being in aid of the NGO's non-profit, voluntary conservation work.

The organisation said concrete action must be taken to protect biodiversity rather than just signing agreements and it wanted more children, adults and families to see the Waves Of Life documentary, arguing that planet Earth was the only home for humans and the millions of other creatures they coexisted with.