The ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity was held in Bonn, Germany, from 19 to 30 May 2008 under the theme "One Nature - One World - Our Future which encapsulates the need for collective action to address a common threat—the drastic decline in the world's biological diversity which could have severe consequences for everyone on the planet.

The work of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) on climate change in Africa was initiated as a follow-up to the twelfth session of AMCEN, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in June 2008, during which ministers underscored the importance of the decision and outcomes of the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the third session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, held in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, in particular the agreement on the Bali Action Plan, which set 2009 as the end date for negotiations on strengthening the climate regime beyond 2012.