World Environment Day observed with theme ‘Connecting People to Nature’

5 June: World Environment Day

The World Environment Day (WED) was observed on 5 June 2017 with the year’s theme ‘Connecting People to Nature’. The day is annually observed with an aim to encourage awareness and action for the protection of the environment.

The day that began in 1974 is a flagship campaign for raising awareness on emerging environmental issues from marine pollution to global warming, to wildlife crime and sustainable consumption.

Today, the campaign has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated all over the world.
Every World Environment Day has a different global host country, where the official celebrations take place. Canada was chosen as the host country for the celebration of the 2017 World Environment Day. World Environment Day is an important part of Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations. As part of the festivities, Canada offers free passes for its national parks throughout 2017.

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“Connecting People to Nature”

Each World Environment Day is organised around a theme that focuses attention on a particularly pressing environmental concern. The theme for 2017, ‘Connecting People to Nature’, urges people to get outdoors and into nature, to appreciate its beauty and to think about how we are part of nature and how intimately we depend on it. It challenges us to find fun and exciting ways to experience and cherish this vital relationship.

Billions of rural people around the world spend every working day ‘connected to nature’ and appreciate full well their dependence on natural water supplies and how nature provides their livelihoods in the form of fertile soil. They are among the first to suffer when ecosystems are threatened, whether by pollution, climate change or over-exploitation.

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Nature’s gifts are often hard to value in monetary terms. Like clean air, they are often taken for granted, at least until they become scarce. However, economists are developing ways to measure the multi-trillion-dollar worth of many so-called ‘ecosystem services’, from insects pollinating fruit trees to the leisure, health and spiritual benefits of a hike up a valley.

The Environment and the Sustainable Development Goals

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development states our resolve “to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources”. In particular, Goals 14 and 15 focus on protecting under water and on land ecosystems, as well as on sustainably using marine and terrestrial resources.

Events to be held on the occasion

To celebrate the occasion of the world environment day several events will be organised worldwide including the Ocean Conference.

The Ocean Conference

To press the agenda of saving the ocean, a four-day-long Ocean Conference will start at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The conference will be held from 5 to 9 June 2017, with theme Our Oceans, Our Future: Partnering for the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. The conference collides with the World Oceans Day that is annually celebrated on 8 June.

About Our oceans, our future: partnering for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14

The high-level United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development will be convened to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. The Governments of Fiji and Sweden have the co-hosting responsibilities of the Conference.

The aim of the Conference: It aims to be the game changer that will reverse the decline in the health of our ocean for people, planet and prosperity. It will be solutions-focused with engagement from all.

In addition to this, the conference will identify the ways and means to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 by building existing successful partnerships and stimulate innovative and concrete new partnerships to advance the implementation of Goal 14.

Environment Day in Punjab

On this occasion of the World Environment Day, the Health Minister of Punjab Brahm Mohindra has ordered all civil surgeons to plant trees in the government hospitals. The order was passed with an aim to mark the celebrations of world environment day.
He said, in order to protect the atmosphere, Punjab government has chalked out an extensive plan to plant trees in the government hospitals.