As part of the observance of World Environment Day yesterday persons were urged to take actions which would have an enduring positive impact.
Director General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said in a message, “We can scale up significantly current efforts in the discovery, naming, describing and classification of natural organisms by scientists and people everywhere. In this era of global change, we can best develop strategies for biodiversity conservation by studying the changing geographical distribution of species and how their distribution will be affected by, for example, climate change.
“We can give full and effective recognition to the important contribution of indigenous and traditional knowledge, promoting the dynamic exchange of information and know-how to support biodiversity conservation and healthy ecosystems. We can recognise much more forcefully the role that women play in developing and transmitting scientific biodiversity knowledge and their role in biodiversity management and decision-making.
“We can conserve many more areas that are important for biodiversity, on land and at sea, taking into account the aspirations and views of various sectors of society. We can strive for a strengthened interface of biodiversity science with policy. These are the main actions items that emerged from a major science policy conference which UNESCO hosted on the occasion of the launch of the international Year of Biodiversity.”
World Environment Day was celebrated under the theme, ‘Many Species, One Planet, One Future’.
