“Natural species are the library from which genetic engineers can work. Genetic engineers do not make genes. They rearrange exiting ones.”
– Thomas E. Lovejoy –
Are you a passionate nature lover?
If yes, the day which is fallen on the 22nd of May would be one of your favorite topics to talk about.
The International Biological Diversity Day celebrated on the 22nd of May is a special occasion to address the issues of biodiversity. The day pays mammoth attention to the following areas.
- Forest biodiversity
- Biodiversity and food and water
- Biodiversity and climate change
- Biodiversity in drylands
- Marine biodiversity
- Island biodiversity
- Biodiversity and sustainable tourism
- Convention on biological diversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is all about Earth and its life. It focuses on genetic variability, species variability, and ecosystem diversity. According to United Nations’ definition, ‘biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources including diversity within species, between species and in ecosystems’. The age of the earth is about 4.54 billion years. An example of a rich fact regarding it is that tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10% of the earth’s surface and occupy about 90% of the world’s species.
The theme of this year for this day is “From agreement to action; Build back biodiversity”. The United Nations proclaimed this day, especially for uplifting the critical understanding and crucial awareness of biodiversity issues that the earth is currently facing. To celebrate the richness of the biodiversity among us, we should ensure the sustainable development of biodiversity. Ecosystem services are the suite of beneficial factors that ecosystems provide for human beings.
Throughout recent years, biodiversity has drastically declined because of the destruction by human activities, pollution, and climate change, etc. The destruction of habitats and the exploitation of species and ecosystems, land usage, poor water quality, chemical and waste contamination, ecosystem degradation, exotic species introduction, and direct exploitation of natural resources are some other major issues that the earth is encountering right now.
Then how to solve these challenges? These are a few solutions we could undertake to protect the biodiversity surrounding us.
- Protecting endangered species by increasing forest cover
- Restoring holistic ecosystems for a range of flora and fauna
- Improving soil stability by restoring degraded areas
- Limiting and modifying agricultural activities
- Enhancing the domestic conservation
- Restructuring business plans
- Funding directed to innovative solutions
- Using and encouraging others to use substitute products
- Vertical ocean farming
- Giving awareness to the public globally
For the survival of mankind, biodiversity is definitely an essential facet. Hence, it is a crucial responsibility to protect biodiversity to the fullest for the future of everyone living on our planet.
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