Saving the world’s myriad diverse species, which are being lost to human activity at an unprecedented rate, is vital not just for environmental reasons but for the economic well-being of humankind, a senior United Nations official said Thursday, marking that 2010 is international year of biodiversity.
– Without preserving biodiversity and preserving our natural habitat, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) just cannot be achieved, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Environment and Energy Group Director Veerle Vandeweerd warned.
She referred to targets set by the 2000 UN summit to slash a host of social ills, from extreme poverty and hunger to maternal and infant mortality to lack of access to education and health care, all by 2015.
– The reason why UNDP is so involved in biodiversity and why we think it is so important is indeed because biodiversity is not only about greenness. Biodiversity is about the economy, and biodiversity is about the life of people at the community level, she added.
LIVETS BIBLIOTEK BRÆNDER
Stressing the importance of the UN naming 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, she cited former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
In 1993 she said that the library of life is on fire.
– 17 years later the library of life, which is our biodiversity, is still on fire, Ms. Vandeweerd told a news briefing in New York.
ET SPØRGSMÅL OM OVERLEVELSE
The loss of biodiversity and the degradation of natural resources impact first and foremost the poor and the women and the vulnerable, Ms Vandeweerd said.
– We should not forget that three quarters of the world’s population depend on natural resources for their daily living and their daily survival, from the food, the shelter, the recreation, everything; three quarters of the world population is directly related to biodiversity on this planet, she added.
In launching the Year, the UN has stressed that the variety of life on Earth is vital to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide health, wealth, food and fuel.
