Prof. K.C. Bansal, Member, Board of Directors, Global Plant Council
If our aim is sustainable development, sustainable livelihood and if we are looking for sustainable solutions to tackle the issues of climate change, health, food and nutritional insecurity, the only way forward is to use, protect and conserve the existing biodiversity. I am happy that this year’s theme “We’re Part of the Solution” is very appropriate and will serve as a reminder that ‘We, the People’ need to safeguard the Biodiversity, for it provides the foundation on which the life on planet earth depends.
We, the public must be aware of our actions so that we halt further loss of biodiversity and help restore the degraded ecosystems. The human interventions causing damage to the natural habitats for different species is a big concern. We must learn and educate others to live in harmony with nature and respect all forms of biodiversity. Also, it is an absolute necessity to harness the indigenous people’s traditional knowledge. Additionally, we need to undertake concerted efforts to develop capacity and the competent human resources for protecting the biodiversity from the adverse effects caused by climate change, and the fast-emerging plant and animal pathogens.
We, as researchers will continue laying more emphasis on finding the nature-based, science-led solutions to manage agrobiodiversity for meeting the demands of the ever-increasing population for food and nutrition, and environmental sustainability. Recently discovered novel science technologies such as genome and gene editing hold great promise towards meeting these key challenges.
Further, mainstreaming agrobiodiversity-based agriculture and promoting the use of locally adapted crop diversity will ensure climate resilience and minimizing the excessive use of agrochemicals, such as pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Thus, we need to promote the use of local land races and crop wild relatives, and also accelerate their genetic improvement using genome editing technologies for a sustainable food production system.
“We, as researchers will continue laying more emphasis on finding the nature-based, science-led solutions to manage agrobiodiversity for meeting the demands of the ever-increasing population for food and nutrition, and environmental sustainability.” Prof. K.C. Bansal, Member, Board of Directors, Global Plant Council, invites us to safeguard biodiversity, which provides the foundation on which our life on Earth depends. Find out more: https://www.cbd.int/biodiversity-day
More Messages for the International Day for Biological Diversity here.
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