World Environment Day 2016

N Munal Meitei *

Tree Plantation - 2nd edition of Mother Earth Memorial Month on May 17 2010

Chemical science has done so much in the previous century to benefit humans – from creating new drugs, creating exciting new materials and discovering all the basic needs of life. But it seems that we forget one of our responsibilities. The biggest responsibility of mankind today is to protect the environment.

The celebration of World Environment Day has grown into a global platform for public outreach to save the planet. It serves as the people's day for doing something positive for the environment, inspiring individual with collective actions that can generate a hugely positive impact for the earth.

When we see the negative impacts of climate change, such as extreme temperature, unpredicted rainfall, hash cyclones, ozone depletion, endangered species, depleted watersheds, denuded forests or resource depletion, it is easy to blame others – governments for not prioritising environmental policy; industry for raising greenhouse gas emissions; NGOs for not lobbying strongly enough; and individuals for not taking action.

WED however is a day we put aside our differences and instead celebrate the achievements we've made towards protecting and caring for our environment with an aim of sustainable and equitable development, changing our attitude towards the environment and advocate partnership between each human being and each country to ensure a safe future.

In a world where consumerism and materialism are increasing, the celebration of World Environment Day is a time to reflect on whether our collective behaviour needs to be modified to address the challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. This day should also be used to remind us that there is only one living planet and caring of it is our responsibility.

The theme of WED this year is "fight against the illegal trade in wildlife" and Angola, a country seeking to restore its elephant herds, conserve Africa's biodiversity-rich wildlife, and safeguard the environment as it continues to rebuild after more than a quarter-century of civil war is the host country.

The slogan for this year is "Go wild for life". Another theme for this year is "Join the race to make the world a better place". WED aims to inspire more people than ever before to take action to prevent the growing strain on the planet.

The WED logo is a vibrant visual combination of the relationship between human beings and the environment, so as not to jeopardise the needs of future generations. In the background, it shows many of the Earth's ecosystems are nearing critical tipping points of depletion or irreversible change, pushed by high population growth and economic development that is coupled with unsustainable lifestyles. The Fingerprint Living within planetary boundaries is the most promising strategy for ensuring a healthy future.

The colours in the fingerprint represent diversity, not only of people but of the ecosystem. Essentially, the fingerprint is a representation of individuality.

Today, humanity uses the equivalent of 1.6 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year. By 2050, if lifestyles continue on the same trajectory, with a rising population expected to reach 9.6 billion, we will need three planets to sustain our ways of living and consumption.

The WED 2016 campaign aims to raise awareness of the far-reaching nature of wildlife crime and – with the slogan "Go Wild for Life" – encourages people to change their habits to reduce demand for illegal wildlife products, and to press friends, colleagues and officials to do what they can to stop the trade. This call is based on the hope that individual actions and statements can collectively bring about a sea change in attitudes and policies toward both the trade and its products.

These goals aim to make the world a safer place for people, as well as for the plants and wild animals around us. It also reminds that natural resources are finite and sets out a philosophy for their sustainable use. It links traditional conservation efforts to the economic goal of using biological resources sustainably.

The booming illegal trade in wildlife products is eroding Earth's precious biodiversity, robbing us of our natural heritage and driving whole species to the brink of extinction. Wildlife trafficking is the second largest crime after the drug lords in the crime world today. The killing and smuggling is also undermining economies and ecosystems, fuelling organized crime, and feeding corruption and insecurity across the globe. Wildlife crime also represents a serious threat to economies and communities, particularly in developing countries. By fostering corruption and challenging law enforcement, it also undermines institutions and threatens security at all levels.

The current slogan also encourages celebrating all those species under threat and taking action of your own to help safeguard them for future generations. This can be about animals or plants that are threatened within your local area as well as at the national or global level. But the loss of any species, even at a local level, is an erosion of the biodiversity that underpins the natural systems upon which we all depend for our food security, medicines, fresh air, water, shelter and a clean and healthy environment.

Whoever you are, and wherever you live, show zero-tolerance for the illegal trade in wildlife in word and deed, and make a difference.

The environment is not a single factor but lot of things which interact and interfere with human activities, most of the times, are not eco-friendly. It is very essential to have proper hygienic conditions in and around our environment. There should be no compromise when it comes to the cleanliness of the environment and to achieve a healthy life. The Saachh Bharat Mission is a programme on cleanliness for our present government.

Manipur being bordering to Myanmar, is the most important route for the transportation of maximum wildlife crimes. It is believed to more than 50% of the wildlife crimes happening in the mainland passed through this route before transporting to the other South East Asian countries.

Therefore with the current year's WED theme, our state has the most significant role to play to control the wildlife crimes. Our State with a population of 25,70,390 as on the 1st March 2011 is continued to put pressure on forests especially in hill areas where people having only marginal lands and hence as a tradition, they used for Jhoom cultivation for their livelihood.

Only 30.5% of the state population used improvised cooking gas. This is also a huge challenge for cutting of our forests. In the hill villages, now also they have their tradition of hunting which is really a shocking habit.

The licensing authorities also without finding reason, used to issue gun licenses which ultimately turn to kill the wild animals. This is the most unfortunate fact for threatening the wildlife in Manipur.

While the socio-economic pressures on the state's forests are tremendous, the Govt. are taking up many schemes such as Green India Mission, Compensation afforestation programme etc. but the outcomes are wet to see. To solve the numerous environment problems of Manipur, the only hope is by planting the trees on this eve of the World Environment day and then only it will bring the real meaning for celebration of WED with the rest of the world.