{"id":49765,"date":"2018-05-22T12:47:10","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T16:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=49765"},"modified":"2018-07-18T13:26:39","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T17:26:39","slug":"rich-variety-of-life-on-earth-essential-says-guterres-marking-biodiversity-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2018\/05\/rich-variety-of-life-on-earth-essential-says-guterres-marking-biodiversity-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich variety of life on earth essential says Guterres, marking biodiversity day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The welfare and prosperity of people now and in the future, depends on a \u201crich variety of life on earth\u201d said 91ÇÑ×Ó\u00a0Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio\u00a0Guterres<\/a>\u00a0in his message for the\u00a0International Day for Biological Diversity<\/a>, marked on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Since December 1993, when the\u00a0Convention on Biological Diversity<\/a>\u00a0entered into force, its parties have acted to conserve the earth\u2019s flora and fauna, in a sustainable and fair way, said the UN chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cAchieving these objectives is integral to meet our goals for sustainable development,\u201d Mr. Guterres stressed, underscoring the importance of protecting, restoring and ensuring access to ecosystems to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger: Goals 1 and 2 of what are known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs<\/a>).<\/p>\n

To mitigate climate change, he notes that deforestation and land degradation must be reduced while at the same time, enhancing carbon stocks in forests, drylands, rangelands and croplands.<\/p>\n

He said it was also critical to protect the biodiversity of forests and watersheds to support clean and plentiful water supplies.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite these and other benefits, biodiversity continues to decline globally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe answer is to intensify efforts and build on successes,\u201d stated Mr. Gutteres. He explained that in 2018, Parties to the Convention will begin work on a new action plan to ensure that, by 2050, biodiversity is preserved to the best of our abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire world needs to join this effort,\u201d he emphasized: \u201cI urge governments, businesses and people everywhere to act to protect the nature that sustains us.\u00a0 Our collective future depends on it,\u201d concluded the Secretary-General.<\/p>\n

Its decline compounds other challenges, including climate change, water and food security, and public health, which \u201ccan potentially\u00a0lead to catastrophic outcomes<\/a>\u00a0for human existence on this planet,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is therefore, imperative to do everything in our power to halt the destruction of nature,\u201d she emphasized.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two more years to go to redouble our efforts, [\u2026] to design a new deal for nature that will take us from 2020 to the middle of this century,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cWe don\u2019t have much time. But we have a lot of power if we work together, in a collaborative manner to change the way we use nature and biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Martha Rojas-Urrego, Secretary General of the\u00a0Ramsar Convention on Wetlands<\/a>, drew attention to wetlands as being among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth \u2013 from which almost all freshwater supplies are drawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the increasing human population and its dependence on water and wetlands, we must work together in a collective, concerted and sustained effort to conserve wetlands for the planet\u2019s biodiversity and human wellbeing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For his part, David Morgan, from the UN-administered Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES<\/a>), reiterated that \u201cbiodiversity loss has an enormous impact<\/a>\u00a0on our planet, for both the natural environment and human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSafeguarding biodiversity is among the key elements of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs<\/a>),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are still facing tremendous challenges, with the political will of the world\u2019s governments, we can protect the world\u2019s biological diversity,\u201d he asserted, affirming CITES\u2019 continued collaboration with CBD \u201cto save our common heritage for this and future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Via UN News<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The welfare and prosperity of people now and in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":49768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[3011,7534,7537,7540],"class_list":["post-49765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-on-land","category-news","tag-biodiversity","tag-cbd","tag-convention-for-biological-diversity","tag-ramsar-convention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}