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BIO DIVERSITY DAY: OUR SOLUTIONS ARE IN NATURE

Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. D. Namgyal

The word ‘Biodiversity’ has been generated from two words ‘biological’ and ‘diversity’. It refers to all the variety of life that can be found on earth like plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms. Also, it refers to the communities that they form and the habitats in which they live. The article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity has given a formal definition of Biological diversity. The Biological Diversity there is defined as the variability among living organisms from all sources including inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. Thus we can say that ‘Biodiversity’ is the combination of life forms and their interactions with each other and with the rest of the environment that has made Earth is a uniquely habitable place for humans. Its rich biodiversity has been a source of life to millions and millions of different organisims on this planet. Biodiversity provides us a large number of goods and services that sustain our lives. It encompasses a variety of life on earth and the natural patterns it forms. The biodiversity we see today is the fruit of billions of years of evolution, shaped by natural processes and, increasingly by the influence of humans. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we so fully depend. Biodiversity also includes genetic differences within each species for example, between varieties of crops and breeds of livestock. Chromosomes, genes, and DNA, the building blocks of life determine the uniqueness of each individual and each species. Another aspect of biodiversity is the variety of ecosystems such as those that occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and agricultural landscapes. In each ecosystem, living creatures, including humans, form a community, interacting with one another and with the air, water, and soil around them.

Nature has given us everything, we in fact take benefits from nature but mostly we take it for granted. Mahatma Gandhi had once said that, ‘there is everything for our need, but not for our greed’. Unfortunately, when men today is not looking to fulfill their needs, but has moved towards greed. The large scale destruction of trees, the hunting of animals, the pollution of water bodies, the air we breathe, the degradation of soil and the loss of soil fertility all are the consequences of human being playing with nature. Playing with nature brought havoc on this

planet. The most worrisome part is that the human interference with nature has resulted in a loss of biodiversity. In the last hundred years, more than 90 percent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields. Half of the breeds of many domestic animals have been lost, and all of the world’s 17 main fishing grounds are now being fished at or above their sustainable limits. Locally-varied food production systems are under threat, including related indigenous, traditional and local knowledge. With this decline, agro biodiversity is disappearing, and also essential knowledge of traditional medicine and local foods. The loss of diverse diets is directly linked to diseases or health risk factors, such as diabetes, obesity and malnutrition, and has a direct impact on the availability of traditional medicines. Biological resources are the pillars upon which we build civilizations. The loss of biodiversity threatens our food supplies, opportunities for recreation and tourism, and sources of wood, medicines, and energy. It also interferes with essential ecological functions. Our personal health and the health of our economy and human society depend on the continuous supply of various ecological services that would be extremely costly or impossible to replace.

Keeping in mind the importance of biological diversity and the threats to it, the United Nations celebrate International Biodiversity Day or World Biodiversity day on May 22, every year. It is celebrated to thank nature and what all it bring to us. This global event, which is held on the 22nd of May since year 2000; it was created in 1993 but its first seven editions were held on the 29th of December, aims to promote and raise global awareness of issues related to the planet’s biodiversity. When first created by the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly in late 1993, 29 December (the date of entry into force of the Convention of Biological Diversity), was designated ‘The International Day for Biological Diversity. In December 2000’, the UN General Assembly adopted 22 May as IDB, to commemorate the adoption of the text of the Convention on 22 May 1992 by the Nairobi Final Act of the Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This was partly done because it was difficult for many countries to plan and carry out suitable celebrations for the date of 29 December, given the number of holidays that coincide around that time of year.
The United Nations does celebrate this day with different themes every year. This year the theme of the day is ‘Our Solutions are in Nature’. The year 2019 theme was ‘Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health’. Celebrating such days with a specific theme aims to leverage knowledge and spread awareness of the dependency of our food systems, nutrition, and health on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. This all has the ultimate aim of conserving our precious biodiversity.

As the global community is called to re-examine its relationship to the natural world, one thing is certain: despite all our technological advances we are completely dependent on healthy and vibrant ecosystems for our health, water, food, medicines, clothes, fuel, shelter and energy, just to name a few. So, the global community has to reexamine is relationship with the nature. This year’s theme ‘Our solutions are in nature’ emphasizes the role nature plays in providing solutions to many problems of mankind. 2020 is a year of reflection, opportunity and solutions. It is expected, from each of us, that we will ‘Build Back Better’ by using this time to increase the resilience of nations and communities as we recover from this pandemic. 2020 is the year when, more than ever, the world can signal a strong will for a global framework that will ‘bend the curve’ on biodiversity loss for the benefit of humans and all life on Earth.
On this day let all of us pledge to work on the principle of reducing, reusing and recycling of the products. We have to go organic to completely avoid the use of chemical fertilizers and plant protection chemicals. The waste food should be turned into compost. Avoid single-use plastics like plastic straws, coffee cups, plastic cutlery, take out containers or plastic water bottles and Promotion of local and indigenous biodiversity for food and nutrition are some of the issues which we have to look into and adopt in our daily life; if we are serious to conserve our biodiversity and our planet, ultimately.

The authors are Scientist and Head, KVK-Leh; can be reached at [email protected]

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