While countries are under the lockdown due to COVID 19 pandemic, one positive which seems to have come out of this whole situation is that our environment has become better. Pollution levels have drastically reduced, and the air has become cleaner too. World Environment Day is celebrated every year on June 5, so that people all over the world are reminded that we should not take nature for granted. It is an event that is organized by the United Nations, who celebrated it for the first time in 1972 by the UN General assembly, during the first day of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.

The theme of World Environment 2020 is ‘celebrating biodiversity’- a concern that is both urgent and existential. Caritas India in partnership with Centre for Environment Education (CEE) organized a webinar on “Safeguarding Biodiversity and Eco-spirituality” on June 5th, the World Environment Day. The webinar took place from 10:30 AM to 1 PM. A total of 130 people joined the webinar. Through this webinar, Climate Desk (ECISIDE) of Caritas India in partnership with Centre for Environment Education (CEE) talked about how the loss of biodiversity is affecting human lives and how to regain the lost biodiversity through joint efforts.

“Safeguarding biodiversity of our mother earth is one of the biggest challenges of our time and a real threat to the future of humanity”, shared Father Jolly, Asst. Executive Director, Caritas India in his opening remark. Biodiversity acts as a protective layer to prevent the spread of diseases from animals to humans. He made a point that the emergence of stream of eco-spiritualism seeks to connect human beings with environment and understand its interconnectedness and interrelationship between all living beings. He mentioned that this is the time to connect our health and well being with the protection of biodiversity, conservation of ecosystem and integrity of God’s creation.
Father Paul, Executive Director, Caritas India, opened his with his video message on World Environment Day 2020, highlighting the interdependence and interconnectedness of human beings and the vast biodiversity on planet earth. He said, “Let us conserve to consume and consume to conserve”. He appealed to the participants and the larger audience that it is our duty to preserve life in all forms. God created species including human beings and it is our cardinal duty of keeping this planet safe and good so that there is abundance of resources for the sustenance and existence of the current and the future generations. He also shed light on Caritas India’s work in the area of climate change and agriculture, mentioning SAFBIN project, which supports 30,000 farmers involved in promoting local species on mother earth. He also announced that Caritas India plans to plant 100,000 trees this year.

Padamashri Kartikeya Vikram Sarabhai, and Director of Centre for Environment Education, (CEE) drew attention to all the sources of inspiration on climate action, right from Upanishads to message by Pope Francis in the encyclic. Expressing his content about this collaboration, he expressed that the period of lockdown has revealed so many realities- how badly human beings have treated the planet that it has led to biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change. He quoted Gandhi, Earth charter and the Constitution of India to urge everyone to realize their duty to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife. He mentioned three pillars of sustainability- social, economic and environment, which form the basis of sustainable development goals. He concluded on a slide that read the message- Increasing Handprint and Decreasing Footprint.

Leading the panel of eminent speakers, Mr. Satish Awate, Program Director, Biodiversity Conservation and Education, CEE, delivered a talk on ‘Mighty Microbes & Viruses: Invisible Biodiversity’. He drew attention to a lot of misinformation and unsubstantiated claims about microbial life that is making rounds on social media. In the light of COVID-19, there is a lot of negative perception about virus species, but he reassured the microbial life also plays a very important role in the biodiversity, existing in its invisible form. Sheer number of microbial species to sheer biomass far outweigh all the visible form of biodiversity. Microbes like yeast and lactobacillus are useful as they provide us with food items. Nitrogen fixing bacteria like azotobacterial and rhizomes play an important role in the nitrogen fixation in the soil and roots. Each living organism has its own microbiome. The human genomic studies have revealed that we are all made up of microbes. While celebrating World Environment Day 2020, it becomes a must to educate ourselves of all the living species and taking this awareness to every section of the society.
Eminent speaker, Most Rev. Auxiliary Bishop Mar Tony Neelankavil, Trichur, spoke about eco spirituality and interdependence. He talked about environment from church perspective: ecological issues are at the heart of church spirituality, he described ecological sins as sins committed by humans through the abuse of God’s creation. Quoting Pope Francis, he said that every organism is God’s creation and every creation has a value. Nobody has the right to take life away from anyone. Humans have impoverished earth by consumerism, pollution, greedy consumption, and human development, and every violation of solidarity harms the environment. He talked about the principle of gratitude and gratefulness to mother earth and how spirituality can motivate action to protect earth. In the words of Bishop Tony, environment is a loan to current generation, and it has to be passed safely to the upcoming generations.
Dr. Haridas V.R., Theme Lead, Climate Desk, Caritas India, among the panelists at the webinar looked at the ‘Biodiversity and interconnectedness’. He talked about the symbiotic relationship between nature and living organisms and how the two depend on each other for various needs. He brought up the insensitive side of human being, that has been acting selfish and greedy and not using the resources judiciously. Consequently, there is no good health of mother nature and the survival of human beings will be threatened if sustainable action is not taken. He suggested six-point agenda for environment and climate change action: 1.) educating people on importance of biodiversity to create awareness on interdependence and interconnectedness, 2.) planting trees and taking good care of them by providing tree guards, planting varieties especially fruit plants, promoting roadside plantation, etc. 3.) maintenance of bee colonies, as bees pollinate 80 percent of plant species which is important for human survival, 4.) reducing carbon footprint by using judicious amount of resources, avoiding using plastic and wasting paper, 5.) conservation of water, 6.) supporting farmers in promoting sustainable farming and local food.
Mr. Shriji Kurup, Program Coordinator (Coastal & Marine), CEE, talked about marine biodiversity. He presented some interesting examples from the marine and aquatic life. He talked about oxygen storing cyanobacteria that has existed in marine life for more than 2.4 billion years. It is one of the most important sources of oxygen on planet and thereby supports the biodiversity. Prochlorococcus marinus contributes to every fifth breath of oxygen that we take. Methanogenic microorganisms eat methane gas released from ocean floor and thus controlling this green house gas emission into the atmosphere.
Program Coordinator from CEE, Mr. Jason Varghese talked about partnership for biodiversity conservation. He suggested following action points: 1.) documentation of indigenous practices, 2.) engaging various stakeholders and enacting policies to preserve natural habitats such as forests, wetlands, etc., 3.) conducting context analysis with project design so that unforeseen adverse impacts on natural habitats and species can be avoided, 4.) a nationwide campaign of school children, youth, women SHGs and CBOs to create significance of microbial biodiversity.
The sessions were moderated by Mr. Rajesh Upadhyay, HOD, Caritas India. The last session was followed by an open forum, where participants put forward their doubts, queries and suggestions. A formal vote of thanks, presented by Ms. Babita Alick, Operations Manager, marked the end of the webinar.
The webinar gave an opportunity to highlight the importance of safeguarding biodiversity and eco spirituality in a pandemic such as COVID 19. Through this webinar, Caritas India aimed at highlighting that biodiversity loss can have significant direct human health impacts if ecosystem services are no longer adequate to meet social needs. Indirectly, changes in ecosystem services affect livelihoods, income, local migration and, on occasion, may even cause political conflict. Additionally, biophysical diversity of microorganisms, flora and fauna provides extensive knowledge which carry important benefits for biological, health, and pharmacological sciences. It is also inextricably linked to Biodiversity, the theme of World Environment Day 2020.