THE United Nations marked 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity to highlight the vital role of biodiversity in maintaining life on earth.
It's a year-long call to slow down the loss of species due to human activity, or as UN puts it, a plea to save the world's life-supporting ecosystems.
"Biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services our lives depend on. Human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate.
"These losses are irreversible, impoverish us all and damage the life support systems we rely on every day. But we can prevent them," the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said in summarizing the Year's main message.
We've often been told that humans do not exist separately from the other creations in this world. We know that as well since we have seen how nature can throttle our homes and our sources of livelihood as a result of our indiscriminate logging, mining, and a lot of other activities that rape the environment.
And yet, the environment, moreso biodiversity is the first that goes on the chopping board when government speaks of inviting investments.
Just as often as we've been told that every human action has corresponding repercussions, we've witnessed how our leaders willingly give over what little forested mountains we still have, and the few lush seascapes. A little tug here, then suddenly mining becomes the country's flagship industry and logging is allowed despite a logging ban. A little talk over there, then beaches are offered as shipbreaking facilities.
The people, however, should know better by this time and stand firm on the call for nature's conservation. Nature has put everything in place but man has been destroying it. Now we are approaching the days when Christmases are as hot as summer nights and fertile soils are turning to barren dust.
We simply have to make our voices against these continued destruction of the little biodiversity that remains in our country be heard over and over again. And the best time to do it is this year, when our voices will be joined by the United Nations.