International day of Biodiversity

-- Quote of the Day --

"Accountability breeds response-ability." 

- Stephen R Covey

-- International Day of Biodiversity --

Today is International Day of Biodiversity. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (www.cbd.int) "The United Nations proclaimed May 22 The International Day for Biological Diversity  to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues." Last year's theme focused on invasive species - this year's theme focuses on green space development and poverty alleviation.

So many plants and animals are threatened by human activities - that we have lost about 30% of the animal diversity in the last 50 years. Did you know that there is an unprecedented decline in the number of species happening right now, every single day? During the last century as much as 75% of our food biodiversity has died out and only 10% remains!! Every single one of us has played a role in this vast destruction - and yet, because this is human-caused, we can change it. We can change it by being more responsible, making smarter business and shopping decisions and creating green space where ever we can.

Your own backyard can be an amazing place to begin. Start by building healthy soil, and then once you have that in place, bring in plants that have a wide variety of shapes and sizes, with a wide variety of high-pollen producing flowers and a few shrubs that produce winter berries for the birds. This is a great place to start. You can then bring in a water feature, bird houses, bat houses, bee habitat creation and more. Perhaps your family will adopt a trail, or beach or river bank and start projects there... There are so many things we can do. Including keeping our cats indoors, or in outdoor enclosed areas (kind of like a caged play pen that the felines can enter via their cat door - cats are responsible for killing millions of birds each year. And these are unnecessary deaths.

Here's something that families and youth or adult groups can get involved in: According to Biodiversity Day (www.biodiversity-day.info), because the focus this year they are inviting individuals and groups to highlight the importance of ecosystems for human well-being. "For 2 to 4 weeks around 22 May, a broad range of people in the participating countries will be invited to jointly explore and analyze a local ecosystem. The idea is to evaluate and demonstrate the value of this ecosystem and its biodiversity in a way that is easily understood by everybody. In cooperation with the TEEB team the "value" of exemplary ecosystems will be assessed."

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio shows and free resources and more at: www.brummet.ca