2020 WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY : Celebrated With Biodiversity

2020 WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY : Celebrated With Biodiversity

World environment day was designed by the UN General Assembly in 1972 on the first day of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Since 1974 the World Environment Day became the global celebration with the theme “Only One Earth”.

World Environment Day is celebrated in many ways in countries such as Kenya, New Zealand, Poland, Spain and the United States. Activities include street rallies and parades, as well as concerts, tree planting, and clean-up campaigns. In many countries, this annual event is used to enhance political attention and action towards improving the environment. This observance also provides an opportunity to sign or ratify international environmental conventions.

Last year the theme of World Environment day 2019 is Air Pollution which relates to the major issue of our planet.

Theme and Host Country for World Environment Day 2020

World Environment Day 2020 will focus on Biodiversity and will be hosted in Colombia in partnership with Germany. This year the theme of World Environment Day 2020 is “Celebrate Biodiversity”.

“With 1 million species facing extinction, there has never been a more important time to focus on biodiversity.”

Colombia is one of the largest “Megadiverse” nations in the world to hold  10% of the planet’s biodiversity. Since it is part of the Amazon rainforest,  Colombia ranks first in bird and orchid species diversity and second in plants, butterflies, freshwater fish, and amphibians.

Ricardo Lozano, Colombia’s Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, Jochen Flasbarth, Germany’s Secretary of State for the Climate, and Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, said that with one million species of plants and animals facing extinction, there has never been a more critical time to focus on the problem of biodiversity. The year 2020 is a critical year for nations’ commitments to preserving and restoring biodiversity.

Why should we care about Biodiversity?

Biodiversity is the variation of Earth’s terrestrial, freshwater, and marine species, as well as their habitats. Biodiversity is vital to the survival of all life on earth and is also the cornerstone for the goods and services of the environment that allow human societies to thrive.

Biodiversity provides us with food, water and resources as well as services such as climate control, pollination, flood mitigation and cycling of nutrients.

Ecosystems are relying on all parts from the smallest bacteria to the largest vertebrate. It’s all interconnected. Some are producing oxygen that others are breathing. Some provide food for larger species, which in turn become prey to even larger species. Every living organism has a role to play in the maintenance of balance.

You can ultimately lose much more than one species by removing one element. More than 98% of the species in nature are extinct.

Biodiversity comprises three primary types: species diversity (genetic diversity), species diversity (animal diversity) and habitats diversity (ecosystem diversity).