World Environment Day: Protection of nature, endangered species, and public health

(Patria) - World Environment Day is celebrated every year on June 5 in more than 140 countries around the world, on the anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Environment (Stockholm, 1972), when the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was adopted. It is the UN's most important day for promoting environmental awareness and action on environmental protection worldwide.

For 46 years, world governments and organizations have been launching initiatives on this day to promote the importance of environmental protection. Each year, World Environment Day is dedicated to a theme that requires special attention and urgent action. By celebrating Environment Day worldwide, environmental awareness is fostered, political and social attention is directed, and the aim is to highlight the main environmental problems and enable everyone to understand their own role and responsibility in acting towards sustainable development.

The theme of World Environment Day 2020 is "Celebrate Biodiversity". "With a million species facing extinction, there has never been a more important time to focus on biodiversity.".

According to experts, food production destroys 80 percent of the world's forest cover and causes the creation and emission of 30 percent of greenhouse gases, the biggest culprit for biodiversity loss and changes in land quality for food production. At the same time, 25 percent of global food production takes place in inhabited areas of the planet, for which 70 percent of fresh water resources are used.

Loss and degradation of natural habitats, especially forest ecosystems, loss of natural hosts, increased contact between humans and wild animals, and their uncontrolled extermination are also reasons for the increased risk of pathogens transferring from wild animals to humans.

The goal of celebrating Environment Day is to highlight the strength and power of individuals and local communities in solving environmental protection problems and directing towards sustainable development. It is necessary for them to become active participants in sustainable and equitable development and to take responsibility for preserving the planet, knowing that the role of local communities is crucial for understanding the importance of environmental protection issues and achieving a safer and more prosperous future for all.

The message to be conveyed this year is that with a million species facing extinction, there has never been a more important time to focus on biodiversity, and on the other hand, it is a fact that humans inevitably change the environment through their activities. 

Technological and industrial development take their toll in the irreversible degradation of water, soil, and air, in the daily disappearance and extinction of many plant and animal species, and in the emergence of previously unknown and very often fatal diseases in humans, which humanity is currently facing in the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic. In this context, a re-examination of our relationship with nature and the environment is also warned about.

Environmental associations and experts dealing with ecology and environmental protection generally agree that global warming is a consequence of increased emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, primarily carbon dioxide, which is produced by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas.

The reality is that the climate is changing, and the consequences of climate change such as rising sea levels, melting glaciers, large-scale floods and droughts, heatwaves, more frequent and stronger storms, are being felt worldwide.

In the context of this year's celebration of World Environment Day, two current pieces of information from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the field of nature and environmental protection can be mentioned - regarding endangered species and public health.

According to the first, in the last three months, six bears have been lost to nature in Bosnia and Herzegovina, three in each BiH entity, as announced by the Center for Environment from Banja Luka. The center cites ecologists' opinions that this shows how necessary it is to have clear protocols for action in such and similar situations and to form an intervention team for large carnivores.

"Such situations remind us of the necessity of improving and resolving issues of species management in our country," stated the Center for Environment.

The second piece of information relates to the formation of an expert team for BiH's fight against waste disposal at Trgovska Gora in Croatia, which would endanger about 250,000 residents in 13 municipalities in the Una River basin.

At the first meeting of the BiH Coordination Body for the issue of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel disposal at the Trgovska Gora site, an expert team was constituted to prepare an adequate response, as Croatia's intention to store radioactive waste at a location near the border with BiH is unacceptable to BiH.

This is an expert team of 21 people from relevant ministries and fields, with a unified stance from BiH to prevent neighboring Croatia's intention to create a disposal site directly on the BiH border.

The theme of World Environment Day for 2019 was "Beat Air Pollution", within which data from the World Health Organization (WHO) were highlighted, according to which nine out of ten people on Earth breathe polluted air, and it is estimated that seven million people worldwide die prematurely each year due to air pollution.