EDITORIAL: WHY WE MUST HONOUR WORLD BIODIVERSITY DAY
Today, May 22, the world marks International Day for Biological Diversity (IDBD) – also simply known as World Biodiversity Day. This is a UN-sanctioned day for promoting biodiversity issues. ‘Biodiversity’ defines all life’s varieties on Planet Earth, and their habitats. These include – but are by no means limited to – plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms.
IDBD falls within the scope of the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals-2030.
In this larger scope for international cooperation, biodiversity concerns stakeholders in sustainable agriculture; desertification, land degradation and drought; water and sanitation; health and sustainable development; energy; science, technology and innovation; knowledge-sharing, and capacity-building.
It also covers urban resilience and adaptation; sustainable transport; climate change and disaster risk reduction; oceans, seas and other water bodies; forests; vulnerable groups – including indigenous peoples; food security, etc., etc...
Thematically speaking, sustainable development through appropriate biodiversity is “The World we want: a future for all.”
May 22 was selected as World Biodiversity Day to commemorate the day, May 22, 1992, when the Convention on Biological Diversity was formally adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in Brazil.
That was when and where world leaders agreed on a comprehensive strategy for sustainable development: “meeting our needs while ensuring that we leave a healthy and viable world for future generations.”
According to the Fifth National Report on Implementation of the Convention published in 2014, Tanzania is “one of the mega-biodiversity-rich countries globally, hosting six of the 25 known biodiversity hotspots in the world... with at least 14,500 confirmed species globally.”
But, Tanzania is also among the 15 countries of the world which have “the highest number of endemic, as well as threatened, species...”
Hence the country’s need to be ‘part of the solution to a future for all in the world we want’ – starting with deeply honouring the International Day for Biological Diversity.
WISHING SIMBA THE BEST...
Tanzania’s Simba Sports Club (Simba) are today in a ‘do-or-die’ second-leg match of the Caf quarterfinals against South Africa’s Kaizer Chiefs at Dar es Salaam’s Benjamin Mkapa Stadium, starting at 4pm.
Simba need 4-0 goals at least in regulation time to equal the first-leg match score by Kaizer Chiefs in Johannesburg last Saturday. This would give the Tanzanian Club the chance to increase the score in a penalties shootout.
On the other hand, they could score at least five goals in regulation time. In either case, this would propel Simba to the semi-finals… To that noble end, Simba must try their hardest to do their best against a relatively formidable opponent in international football.
Indeed, this is not going to be an easy encounter, and side-lining Kaizer Chiefs from the Caf Championships is no low-hanging fruit for Simba, proverbially speaking. If that happens, this would bolster Simba’s image no end on the international footballing map,we say.
Also, the good news is that – in the face of the still-raging global viral Covid-19 pandemic – Caf has agreed to some 10,000 cheering spectators to physically attend the encounter and enliven it. So, this is another golden chance for Simba to demonstrate on home-ground their worth in today’s encounter with the Kaizer Chiefs.
