International Biodiversity Day, which was first introduced in 1993, is celebrated annually on 22 May and aims to increase awareness and understanding of biodiversity issues. This year’s slogan is ‘Building a shared future for all life’. 

According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), this slogan ‘conveys the message that biodiversity—from ecosystem-based approaches to climate and/or nature-based solutions to climate and health issues, food and water security and sustainable livelihoods—is the foundation upon which we can build back better.’ The day promotes the idea that biodiversity is the answer to many challenges relating to sustainability and development. The CBD calls for the day to be celebrated by adopting the 22 actions for biodiversity that are in line with the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. The framework aims to call to action governments and all of society, including civil society, local communities, indigenous peoples and businesses, to achieve the outcomes it sets out as vision missions and goals. The CBD recognises that biological diversity is about more than plants, animals and microorganisms and their ecosystems—it is also about people. ‘Biodiversity is the living fabric of our planet. It underpins human well-being in the present and in the future, and its rapid decline threatens nature and people alike.’

Transnational and, more broadly, global cooperation, is an important factor for biological conservation and includes the impact that transnational contact zones have on biological diversity. In KwaZulu-Natal, sugar cane farming was introduced by the British colonial regime and the large-scale plantations that were established had an immediate impact on groundwater levels and biodiversity. Along with that came several thousand colonial settlers, indentured labourers and ‘free’ / ‘passenger’ Indians. This population explosion had a massive effect on the leaching of the land. Sugar-cane farming in wetlands has resulted in an extreme abstraction of vital wetland and groundwater reservoirs, which has led to severe degradation. Considering the limited number of wetlands in South Africa, and given their role as habitats for important species and as a significant water supplier, their degradation is a cause for concern. In this regard, Dr Debjyoti Ghosh of the University of Pretoria’s Department of Sociology, who will be presenting at an international hybrid conference on transnational contact zones in July 2022, explained: ‘Thus, we connect how, while colonised lands inadvertently became transnational contact zones, over and above ancient trading ports—which had led to multiculturalism much earlier on—they also led to a culture of exploitation of not only the people, but also of the land in different ways.’ 

With its more than 95 000 known species, South Africa is the third most biodiverse country in the world. Biodiversity, ecological infrastructure and associated ecosystem services act as an invaluable foundation for South Africa’s economy. In April 2022, South Africa was one of the first countries to develop a spatial data tool that integrates priorities across biodiversity conservation, climate change and sustainable development into a single action map. This map for nature-positive action is the result of a partnership that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in South Africa, through its Biodiversity Finance Initiative Project (BIOFIN), supported by Impact Observatory and the Sustainable Markets Foundation, has forged with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). It aims to map the areas in the country where efforts to restore, manage and protect nature provide significant benefits to South Africans in the form of sustainable livelihoods and food and water security, as seen in the KwaZulu-Natal wetlands. According to the CBD, ten percent of South Africa’s wetlands are fully protected and a further 8 percent are partially protected. The primary aim of the maps will be to mobilise resources for nature-based actions that are aligned across several policy commitments.  

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) intersectoral strategy for biodiversity is based on three pillars:

• Restore the relationship between humans and nature and regenerate ecosystems

• Conserve the harmony of our ecosystems

• Amplify the power of youth

Commenting on the significance of International Biodiversity Day, Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of UNESCO, said: ‘These days are occasions to remind us once again that it is only with a cross-cutting and ambitious approach that we can build a more ecologically sustainable future.’ Referring to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, she stated: ‘The retreat into the private sphere and the desertion of most public spaces have temporarily blurred the sharing of space between humans and other species.’