Celebrating International Day for Biological Diversity 2021

The International Day for Biological Diversity is celebrated every year on the 22nd of May, a date dedicated to raising global awareness about the importance of protecting biological resources & global biodiversity, shaping our environment, not just the various plant species, animal species & microorganisms, but also the genetic diversity of all of them, as well as the vast variety of ecosystems all of whom make up our planet.

 

The disappearance of the International Day for Biological Diversity from the list of annual milestones would be big news, as the international days of observance are in existence to give us awareness on the issues that must be resolutely tackled with. When we talk about biodiversity, the data related to the deterioration of it just continues to get worse year after year. Hence, the need to take action to cease this, grows increasingly urgent.

 

According to the United Nations, 3 quarters of Earth's land based environment and close to 66% of the marine environment have already been altered by the human activity. The latest report submitted by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aka the IPBES, says that more than a million plants & animals are the risk of extinction.

 

Only once we realise that we are a major part of the solution, we will be able to put a stop to the damage that we’re causing to the environment .

 

United Nations dedicated the 22nd of May of every year as International Day for Biological Diversity to develop awareness about biodiversity issues. The first International Day for Biological Diversity, (also called World Biodiversity Day), was created in an UN General Assembly in the year 1993. Since 2001, it has been celebrated every year.

  

Biodiversity / Biological diversity means life on Earth constitutes a variety of living organisms. There are at least 8 million species on Earth including plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, etc. The biodiversity is seen today was actually formed over billions of years of evolution. The ecosystems like deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, rivers, lakes too are a part of biodiversity which allows organisms to form a community and live cohesively.

  

The fact is that climate change is the major threat to biodiversity. Despite the fact that biodiversity is essential for human survival it is us humans who are greatly responsible for its greatest threat against it - climate change. There are several species that have already suffered irreparable consequences or are just about to – 3 species disappear every single hour. Close to 100-150 species disappear every day. We can stop this if we take appropriate actions towards environment preservation, as a globe.

  

A healthy ecosystem can protect us against an outbreak of any infectious diseases. Humans, on an average, struggle with the spread of one new infectious disease in every 4 months. The spread of such infections are just a result of the massive destruction caused inside animal habitats which increase our exposure to pathogens. As we’re in a pandemic, the UN says, we all need to take an urgent and collaborative call to build a sustainable economy that works towards preserving nature & biodiversity.