Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

4-minute read
06 June 2024 | 14:06 CAT

Image/ EcoWatch

Our everyday activities as humans are so significant that they affect the world’s environment, atmosphere, landscape, ecology and climate on a global and often disruptive scale.

Dr Lize Barclay, senior Lecturer in Systems Thinking and Futures Studies at the Stellenbosch Business School, emphasizes that each of us, regardless of our role or position, has a part to play in shaping our environment. This collective responsibility empowers us to make a difference.

The slogan for World Environment Day 2024 is “Our land. Our future. We are #GenerationRestoration”.” Founded in 1973, it is organized by the United Nations annually to motivate the world to consider the impact of human activities on the environment.

“The focus of it is specifically to rebuild and refocus our assets of improving the environment and this year the host nation is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Dr Barclay told Radio Islam International.

Dr Barclay states, “Land restoration is one of the key pillars of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021 – 2030). This initiative is not about mobilizing back time but our potential to restore the soil, revive water sources, and mitigate the damage our activities have caused. We have the power to be the generation that makes a positive change.”

World Environment Day 2024 will illuminate the triple planetary threat of the nature and biodiversity loss crisis, pollution and waste, and climate change. This threat has damaged the world’s ecosystems, with almost half of the world’s population affected by land degradation. Rural communities, the poor, and small-scale farmers are the most vulnerable.

‘The world has witnessed remarkable success stories of land restoration, world’s being rehabilitated, and soil being enriched. In Africa, the late Wangari Maathai from Kenya founded the Green Belt Movement and inspired Kenyans, especially women, to plant more than 30 million trees. These achievements show us what is possible when we come together for a common cause,’ comments Dr Barclay.

“In neighbouring Tanzania, the area of Shinyanga was characterized by desertification, but a Soil Conservation Initiative since 1986, which also rallied community effort, financial investment and the Indigenous practice of Ngitili, led to dramatic restoration characterized and rehabilitation of the soil, as well as marked success in terms of dryland restoration in various locations the Greater Horn of Africa and in the Sahel in Africa,” she said.

Listen to the full interview on Your World Today with Mufti Yusuf Moosagie and Dr Lize Barclay here.