REIMAGINE,RECREATE AND RESTORE

World Environment Day is one of the biggest annual events organised by the United Nations (UN) to generate awareness about the significance of nature. It is important to note that the World Health Organization (WHO) has joined UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a mission to prevent, reverse the degradation of ecosystems and the diversity of life they sustain.

. The United Nations Assembly established World Environment Day in 1972, which was the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the human environment.In 1974, the theme of World Environment Day One Earth'. Since then, various host countries have been celebrating it. World Environment Day was first observed in 1974 in the United States.

The theme of this year's World Environment Day is Reimagine. Recreate. Restore.' as this year marks the beginning of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Pakistan is the global host for the day to highlight the importance of ecosystem restoration this year. Restoration ecology is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action. Effective restoration requires an explicit goal or policy, preferably an unambiguous one that is articulated, accepted, and codified. Restoration goals reflect societal choices from among competing policy priorities, but extracting such goals is typically contentious and politically challenging.

Natural ecosystems provide ecosystem services in the form of resources such as food, fuel, and timber; the purification of air and water; the detoxification and decomposition of wastes; the regulation of climate; the regeneration of soil fertility; and the pollination of crops. These ecosystem processes have been estimated to be worth trillions of dollars annually. There is consensus in the scientific community that the current environmental degradation and destruction of many of Earth's biota are taking place on a "catastrophically short timescale".Scientists estimate that the current species extinction rate, or the rate of the Holocene extinction, is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the normal, background rate. Habitat loss is the leading cause of both species extinsion and ecosystem service .Two methods have been identified to slow the rate of species extinction and ecosystem service decline, they are the conservation of currently viable habitat and the restoration of degraded habitat. The commercial applications of ecological restoration have increased exponentially in recent years In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2021–2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

NADIYAMOL RABBANI M N (KL20SWA156157)

21KER BETALION,(K&L)

GPTC, KALAMASSERY