TNI Bureau: On Saturday, June 5, the world commemorates World Environment Day. It is the United Nations’ largest public awareness campaign, which began in the early 1970s. It’s that time of year again, when civil society organisations, environmentalists, schoolchildren, and world leaders pause to contemplate the effects of human activities on Mother Earth.
The subject of this year’s World Environment Day is “ecosystem restoration,” with an emphasis on redefining our relationship with nature.
Our mother Earth is under growing strain as a result of modern lifestyles and unsustainable growth trends. As a result, environmental events such as WED can assist to reach out to the general public and younger generations in order to promote and educate them about the need of environmental and natural resource protection.
WED 2021 also marks the start of “the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration,” which will culminate in the COP15 of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in October 2021, when the international community will agree on a new “Global Biodiversity Framework.”
This is significant since the UN Decade spans from 2021 to 2030, which coincides with the Sustainable Development Goals’ deadline. The UN Decade aims to dramatically increase ecosystem restoration to combat climate change, avoid the extinction of a million species, and improve food, energy, and water security and livelihoods.
Humanity has experienced many catastrophes in the last year and a half, including an unprecedented global pandemic and ongoing climate related issues, biodiversity, and pollution issues. Addressing climate change is linked to ecological restoration. These two global problems are intrinsically intertwined, and restoring nature, particularly through nature-based solutions, is the greatest way to reverse the consequences of climate change.