Speech on International Biodiversity Conservation Day!

The word ‘biodiversity’ is a combination of two words: biological and diversity. It refers to
the variety of life on Earth and encompasses all the living things that exist in a certain
area, in the air, on land or in water: plants, animals, microorganisms, fungi.

The diversity of the Earth’s natural assets are made up of many millions of distinct
biological species of plants and animals - on land, in water, in atmosphere – linking
humans and environment into one interdependent ecosystem! Biological diversity, or
“biodiversity” for short makes world unique and beautiful.

Biological diversity is defined as the variability among living organisms from all sources
including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes
of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of
ecosystems.

In the last 100 years, more than 90 percent of crop varieties have disappeared from
farmers’ fields. Half of the breeds of many domestic animals have been lost, and all of the
world’s 17 main fishing grounds are now being fished at or above their sustainable limits.
Locally-varied food production systems are under threat, including related indigenous,
traditional and local knowledge. With this decline, agrobiodiversity is disappearing, and
also essential knowledge of traditional medicine and local foods. The loss of diverse diets
is directly linked to diseases or health risk factors, such as diabetes, obesity and
malnutrition, and has a direct impact on the availability of traditional medicines.

But the world is losing biodiversity at an ever-increasing and alarming rate. Biodiversity
has declined by more than a quarter in the last 35 years in terms of number of species.
Triggers for this are population growth and infringement into eco-systems, and
unsustainable use of natural resources – we use resources faster than they can
regenerate, we cut trees faster than they re-grow, and catch fish at a rate faster than they
repopulate.

Globally, humanity uses 40% more resources than nature can regenerate in a year – we
would need 1.4 planet Earths to support our life style. This is important because
biodiversity is critical for human development. Every human being, every nation as well
as future generations depend upon healthy biodiversity.

Biodiversity provides humanity with a number of life-important products and services such
as water availability and purification, soil formation and protection against shocks,
pollution break down and absorption, climate stability and recovery from natural disasters.
All this we take as for granted.

It is about saving lives, as the traditional and modern medicine are totally based on natural
plants and animals, and about food security, as biodiversity provides food for the Earth
population and sustain productivity chains.
It is about a huge contribution to the world economy: According to IUCN, the World
Conservation Union, the monetary value of goods and services provided by ecosystems
is estimated to amount to some US$33 trillion per year. For comparison, the whole
European Union GDP in 2008, when the assessment was done, generated $14.94 trillion.
As an example, nature-based tourism in Africa generates approximately the same amount
of revenue as farming, forestry and fisheries combined

Hence preserving biodiversity is key for a future where people have sufficient food
supplies, agriculture keeps on producing what it ought to, where there is resilience to
pests and diseases, where fresh water is in sufficient supply, where climate changes is
mitigated, and many more.

We believe that all development pathways should take into account priorities of
biodiversity conservation.

We look forward to cooperating with the Government of India in biodiversity conservation,

improving biodiversity conservation management, moving forward towards realizing the
plans that are being jointly developed such as Master Plan for Protected Area System
Expansion and exploring alternative paths of country’s economy development where
sustainable use of biodiversity can become an important source of revenue for local
population and country as a whole.

Ladies and gentlemen – on World Biodiversity Day let us pledge to commit ourselves to
cooperate for sustainable development and biodiversity conservation.
The Value of Biodiversity

While there is a growing recognition that biological diversity is a global asset of tremendous
value to present and future generations, the number of species is being significantly reduced by
certain human activities.

The Convention on Biological Diversity is the international legal instrument for "the

conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and
equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources" that has been
ratified by 196 nations.

Given the importance of public education and awareness for the implementation of the
Convention, the General Assembly proclaimed 22 May, the date of the adoption of its text, as the
International Day for Biological Diversity by its resolution 55/201 of 20 December 2000.

2019 Theme: Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health

Nowadays, we have access to a greater variety of food than your parents or your grandparents
once did. But even as the offerings become more diverse, the global diet as a whole - what
people actually eat - is becoming more homogenized, and this is a dangerous thing.
This year’s celebrations of the International Day for Biological Diversity focus on biodiversity as
the foundation for our food and health and a key catalyst to transforming food systems and
improving human health.

The theme aims to leverage knowledge and spread awareness of the dependency of our food
systems, nutrition, and health on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. The theme also celebrates
the diversity provided by our natural systems for human existence and well-being on Earth,
while contributing to other Sustainable Development Goals, including climate change mitigation
and adaptation, ecosystems restoration, cleaner water and zero hunger, among others.

The area considered may be as small as your backyard compost heap or as big as our whole
planet. Animals and plants don’t exist in isolation. All living things are connected to other living
things and to their non-living environment (earth forms, rocks and rivers). If one tiny species in
an ecosystem becomes extinct, we may not notice, or think it’s important. But the biodiversity of
that ecosystem will be altered, and all the ecosystems that the species belonged to will be
affected.

Biological diversity therefore refers to the variety and variability among living organisms and the
ecological complexes in which they occur. Diversity can be defined as the number of different
items and their relative frequency.

For biological diversity, these items are organized at many levels, ranging from complete
ecosystems to the chemical structures that are the molecular basis of heredity. Thus, the term
encompasses different ecosystems, species, genes, and their relative abundance.

There is crop biodiversity, agri-horticultural biodiversity, herbal biodiversity, forest biodiversity

all occurring at molecular, micro, and macro levels, a synergistic understanding alone will make
us realize about the economic value of biodiversity resources.

There are three aspects to biodiversity: species diversity, genetic diversity and ecosystem/habitat
diversity.

All three interact and change over time and from place to place:

Habitat Diversity:

Life exists in soil, air, water and other such habitats and biotic communities are controlled by the
environmental variables. Ecosystems include not only the plants, animals and microbes that co-
exists at a place but also the ways in which they interact with each other and adopt to their
physical environment. For example the river Ganges includes the fish, aquatic insects, mussels
and variety of plants that have adapted.

Habitat Diversity is the aggregate of different environment types in a region. For example, a
country on the coast could have a diversity of ecosystems from sandy beaches with salt water
adapted biodiversity, to lush rain forests and dry deserts, each with a unique set of species.
Living organisms and physical environment interact with each other in an ecosystem.

Species Diversity:

Biodiversity is the sum of the variety of all living organisms at the species level. It includes
earth’s plants, animals, fungi and microbes. Around 1.5 millions species of living organisms are
named. There is a hidden wealth of 10 to 100 million more living organisms which have to be
estimated. Species diversity is a function of both species richness and evenness. It measures the
number of species in a given community and also distribution of each species within the
community.
Genetic Diversity:

Tremendous amount of genetic diversity exists within individual species. This genetic variability
is responsible for the different characters in species. Such species adopt to different
environments. Genetic diversity is the raw material from which new species arise through
evolution. Genetic diversity refers to the variation at the level of individual genes besides
providing a mechanism.

For ecological adaptation, more the variation, better the chances that at least some of the
individuals will have an allelic variant that is suited for new environment. Such process will
produce offspring with the variant that will in turn reproduce and continue the population into
subsequent generations.