What Are You Doing This World Environment Day ?

Did you know that 1.6 billion people depended on forests for their livelihoods? This June 5^th, the world will know, as it celebrates the World Environment Day with the theme of “Forests – Nature at Your Service”. And for the first time, India hosts the event!

The concept of celebrating the World Environment Day (WED) was born at the Stockholm Conference of the UN General Assembly in 1972. Ever since, every year the event is celebrated during the week of June 5^th hosted in a different city, but the celebrations are of course worldwide. The idea of WED is to pick up a theme and involve people from all walks of life across the world to understand the theme and learn what can be done in little ways to conserve our precious environment. Bringing in everyone, WED ascertains that anyone and everyone can do their bit and also that everyone is affected by these small decisions. Hence, it emphasizes on the responsibility of each person.

The theme chosen this year is about the importance of forests in the big picture of the environment. It coincides with UN International Year of Forests. India has implemented policies to ensure the stability of this natural reserve in spite of the large dependency of people on forests. India also has a compensation afforestation policy in place which ensures that any public forest land used for non-forestry purposes is compensated by afforesting non-forest land.  Impressed by the various policies taken up by the government of India which include use of clean energy, rural development and conservation of water, UNEP has bestowed the opportunity to be the global host of World Environment Day 2011.

Anyone and everyone around the world can celebrate WED. In India, you can register your activity online and take a pledge with Priyanka Chopra of Rahul Bose! Check out if you can be a part of global activities conducted by UNEP in India. Else, you can pick an event to organize. It can be an art competition in your school or a sports event in your colony, or something more fun like a flash mob! You then register on the website and let the world know what you are doing to increase awareness. Or you can simply check out if someone else is organizing an event near your house and participate in it! So what are you waiting for? This weekend is the time for you to get out there and breathe some fresh air to remind yourself of what the forests do for you and tell the world about it!