International Day for Biological Diversity 2019: What this year’s theme,‘’Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health’’ mean

The International Day for Biological Diversity also known as World Biodiversity Day is on May 22 is proclaimed by the United Nations to be a day to create awareness for biodiversity and its alarmingly rising issues. According to UN website, the world despite having easier access to food and its different varieties than our ancestors once did, the homogenized global diet as a whole remains more dangerous than ever. This year’s theme hence focusses on biodiversity as the foundation for our food and health and a key catalyst to transforming food systems and improving human health.

The theme as such aims to create and spread awareness of the dependency of our food systems, nutrition, and health on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems.

It will also celebrate the on the diversity provided by our mother earth which contributes to other sustainable development goals, including bringing about even a slight climate change, restoration of the ecosystems which means cleaner water, less hunger with healthier food among others.

The reason behind this year’s IDB theme also sprung out a necessity of a better earth which has only been declining in the past 100 years. According to the UN reports, more than 90 percent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields while of the breeds of many domestic animals have been lost, in addition to all of the world’s 17 main fishing grounds are now being fished above their sustainable limits.

All this only add to the decline of agrobiodiversity, food production systems are under threat which result to the loss of diverse diets linking directly to diseases or health risk factors, such as diabetes, obesity and malnutrition, and the likes.