Annually, people across the globe mark the occasion of World Environment Day by taking part in a variety of pre-planned events such as large scale planting campaigns, clean-up campaigns, organising symposiums, workshops, and discussions, entering social media protests, and engaging in a variety of global protests. Despite several of these efforts, the state of our environment is degrading on a daily basis. Why is this the case? The explanation for this, in my opinion, is that all of these major actions are set to take place on a solitary day, June 5th, in order to garner worldwide attention and news coverage. Although some conventions and treaties like Biodiversity convention, COP and some national by-laws accounted to address water and air Pollution include a foundation for humans to conserve the environment, but the failure to comply them results in a setback, portraying such Resolutions and Laws as a mirage.
Each year on June 5th, we celebrate World Environment Day to raise public awareness of environmental challenges such as climate change, water contamination, air quality, urbanization, rising temperatures, and other concerns that harm our environment. The first World Environment Day was held in 1974, with the subject of “Only One Earth,” and was organized by the United States. The subject for this year is ‘Ecosystem Restoration,’ that will emphasize on revitalizing or rebuilding our ecosystems as well as supporting natural resources that have not been degraded. Ecosystem restoration entails aiding in the healing of environments that were deteriorated or degraded, and the preservation of healthy ecosystems. More fertile land, better harvests of forests and fisheries, and larger stores of greenhouse gases are all advantages of better ecosystems with increased diversification. Rehabilitation can take several forms, including actively planting or relieving stresses to allow nature to regenerate on its own. Recovering an ecosystem to its original incarnation may not always be possible – or desired. Restoration of 350 million hectares of destroyed marine and terrestrial habitats might provide $9 trillion in ecological systems from now until 2030. Restoring also could help to reduce carbon emissions by 13 to 26 gigatons. The economic consequences of these actions exceeds the drawbacks of investing by a factor of 9, while inactivity is at least three times greater than ecosystem restoration. During the lockdown last year, we all observed the mother earth renewing to greener pastures and clearer sky. All throughout summers and winters, people may have heard singing birds on the rooftop and enjoyed beautiful weather, but the world today is still fighting a deadly infection. During Lockdown, our environment was able to rebuild itself and repair the wounds we had left behind.
Changing Climate, Loss Of biodiversity, and Pollution, according to the United Nations environmental Programme’s (UNEP) report “Making Peace with Nature,” pose a threefold risk to the public owing to environmental devastation. A few of the affects are worth avoiding even though they might be rectified by natural ecological restoration, however some of the implications like catastrophic weather events (floods, cyclones, global temperature rise, avalanches, Tsunamis etc.), Global health crisis (due to water and air contamination), global food security concerns, financial crisis, geo-political tensions (resource depletion) are worrisome and troubling.
Way Forward
The ‘UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’ is a chance to restore the ecological systems that sustains us all in the context of global crises. I would like to suggest some initiatives that if implemented sincerely have the potential to initiate a large scale ecosystem restoration:-
Restoration initiatives must be designed and initiated at the municipal tier of management, with local populations’ involvement. To preserve our planet, eco-friendly and sustainable attitude is important. An individual with an environmentally conscious mind-set picks anything thoughtfully in line with the environment, including nutrition, apparels, and modes of transportation that are not hazardous to the environment. Authorities, professionals, and practitioners solely do not have the ability to rehabilitate our ecosystem. As a result, restoring the earth is also a cultural challenge. As a result, the United Nations Decade’s strategy encourages composers, storytellers, filmmakers, singers, authors, and communicators to participate in the objective “Generation-Restoration.” The effectiveness of ecological restoration depends on the character strengthening and capacity building of poorer, underprivileged, and marginalised groups of the society who can be effective contributors of the theme. Every regional government needs to develop programs and policies that connect juvenile well-being to recovery objectives. Since education is a vital component of restoration, as it will turn today’s youngsters into environmental evangelists as well as provide abilities for long-term employment.
The author is Research Scholar (University LAVAL, Quebec
North America), and can be reached at ishfaqshowketmir@gmail.com