International Day for Biological Diversity this year needs “urgent” concerted actions to build a resilient and sustainable global economy that incorporates nature at its heart more than ever
In light of the Coronavirus pandemic this year, the interdependence and relationship between humans and nature is highlighted more than ever.
With invasion and intrusion into natural boundaries, humans have apparently set a condition that led to an outbreak of the Coronavirus, repeating the same mistake.
Last year, the global assessment on the state of nature and ecosystems coordinated by the Bonn-based Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) underlined that human activities “threaten more species now than ever before”, with the fact being shown that around 25 per cent of species in plant and animal groups are vulnerable.
This suggests that around one million species “already face extinction, many within decades,” unless action is taken to reduce the intensity of drivers of biodiversity loss, the report noted.
This year would be particularly critical as the global community attempts to address the issue and pave the way for post-2020 global biodiversity framework to try to “bend the curve”.
CBD Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity Elizabeth Maruma Mrema said on the eve of the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) today; “Biodiversity loss is a direct result of our short-sighted human activities including uncontrolled mining and infrastructure development, unsustainable farming and deforestation.
“All these have degraded ecosystems and have created the conditions that lead to events like possibly the pandemic,” she said.
What the world needs to end this pandemic, she added, is taking “urgent” concerted and collaborative actions to build a resilient and sustainable global economy that incorporates nature at its heart, even that means building back from the crisis.
This year IDB’s theme is as such set as, “Our solutions are in nature.”
Wisoot is a nature educator and photographer at Rama 9 Museum, who once roamed in the Western Forest Complex as an assistant park chief including the country’s largest and pristine Kaeng Krachan National Park.