How many names of trees and flowers you can recall? I tried a day before and I was shocked to know I did not know more than twenty five names of flowers in Marathi, fifteen in Hindi and ten in English. It is not only about love I have for charming beauty of flowers but if we go much beyond than that, it is silent witness to our relationship with the sorroundings, nature and environment.
“The cultural wealth of the world is its diversity in dialogue” are the preambular words of UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity Cultural Diversity adopted by 31st Sesssion of General Conference of UNESCO held on 2 November 2001 in Paris. It raises cultural diversity to the level of “the common heritage of humanity”, “as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature” and makes its defence an ethical imperative indissociable from respect for the dignity of the individual.
While the world is celebrating "Cultural Diversity" on 21 May which is marked as 'World Day for Cultural Diversity, for Dialogue and Development'; Prof. Jose` Sarukha`n Kermez a Senior Researcher at Inst. of Ecology, National Autonomous University of Mexico was talking at UNU about "The Privililege and Challenge of Megadiverse Country".
He was trying to explain the importance of Biodiversity as an integral component of wealth developing countries possess and it being a characteristic feature of evolution. Mexico being fifth largest country possesing vast pool of available Biodiversity has made special arrangements to preserve this treasure trove of nature which is truly a "Bank by God".
Declaration goes ahead to assert that "ONE CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE OTHER" by saying that "...each individual must acknowledge not only otherness in all its forms but also the plurality of his or her own identity, within societies that are themselves plural. Only in this way can cultural diversity be preserved as an adaptive process and as a capacity for expression, creation and innovation. The debate between those countries which would like to defend cultural goods and services “which, as vectors of identity, values and meaning, must not be treated as mere commodities or consumer goods”, and those which would hope to promote cultural rights has thus been surpassed, with the two approaches brought together by the Declaration, which has highlighted the causal link uniting two complementary attitudes."
Prof.Sarukha`n was describing Mexican efforts to coserve Neotropical, Boreal and Endemic species which range in thousands throughout the topography of the country. Mexico has established CONABIO, a comprehensive databse of different species found in whole region. Through database, Govt.is trying to promote and coordinate actions towards increase in sustainable knowledge. As observed by Prof.Sarukha`n the main challenge ahead of Biodiversity practises is to obtain, organise and make Conservation managment more efficient. In this, he says, role of Information Communication and Education is extraordinary.
In the age of rampant Biopiracy, he advocated the national intelligence to help conserve and manage sustainable Biodiversity with the help of "Local Action" i.e. with the help of indigenous peoples, organisations and their experience. Without saying anyhting about the term "Benefit Sharing" Prof.Sarukha`n said that actors in conserving and managing Biodiversity should be owner`s of country`s natural capital.
As maintained by Office of CONABIO, "This information in the database has become absolutely essential to public-interest tasks like monitoring, ecological cordination, environmental impact assessment including its supervision. Moreover, in many countries,the law protects by name certain species and in practice this has been a very powerful tool for protecting areas (specified in Endangered Species Act of Mexico), but also it is now doubly important to be able to access as much scientific information as possible, to avoid erring in any direction."
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