The Rencontres de la Terre 2010 is a ten day festival from the 29 November to the 8^th December and will take place in various locations all over Athens. It is being organized under the auspices of the Athens Municipality and the Greek UNESCO Committee as well as the French Embassy, the Goulandri Natural History Museum, the Conferences sans Frontiers, Pataki publications and others. It is being organized in the framework of the International Year of Biodiversity and will include lectures by scientists, the civil society and writers, film screenings, a photography exhibition, workshops and activities for children and finally the creation of a Mediterranean garden in the centre of Athens which will illustrate Greek biodiversity through plants and flowers.

As part of the “Rencontres de la Terre 2010” the “Science Café” is being organized which will touch on three main topics, “Agriculture and Biodiversity: Towards sustainable agriculture”, “Biodiversity Hotspots: where Nature shows its treasures” and “Marine Biodiversity: What is going on below the surface?” These three sessions will take place on the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th December respectively in the Pataki bookshop on 65 Akadimias Street from 19:00 to 20:30.  Ms Vasiliki Chrisopolitou, a biologist who works for the Greek Biotope/Wetland Centre (EKBY) will be one of the two speakers on the second session on “Biodiversity Hotspots: where Nature shows its treasures”. The session will present the functions of wetlands mainly in respect to biodiversity preservation, the state of Greek wetlands and their large scale destruction and degradation in the last fifty years as well as the tools that can be used for their protection.

A full program of the festival is available online. For more information please contact Sofia Spirou (sofiaspirou@gmail.com)