International Day of Forests : Definition, History & Significance
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Every year the world loses around 13 million hectares of forest land because of various reasons. It’s widespread negative effects have been seen over the years such as global warming. United Nation decided to celebrate the International Day of Forests on 21st March every year to raise awareness for conservation of all types of forest.
What is the history of International Day of Forests?
In the 16th session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization in the year 1971, member states voted to establish the “World Forestry Day” on 21st March every year. Again in the years 2007 to 2012, Center for International Forestry Research held annual meetings in conjunction with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of parties.
Following the International Year of Forests, in 2011 the International Day of Forests was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on 28th November, 2012.
What is the significance of International Day of Forests?
Forests are essential for our physical and mental well-being as trees help to build our immune system, lower down our blood pressure and provide relaxation. Forests provide us medicines and important health products such as ethanol for sanitizers, toilet paper, and others. Almost 60 percent of all infectious diseases and 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases are originating from animals to humans. They occur when natural landscapes like forests are cleared.
International Day of Forests helps various individuals and organizations to come together and raise awareness about various benefits of having forests and maintaining ecological balance of life.
How do we celebrate International Day of Forests?
International Forest Day has been celebrated over the years by the United Nations along with one of its subsidiaries United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- Inaugural forest day was held in the year 2007 and more than 800 people participated in the event. Detailed discussions on the issues relating to adapting to climate change, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) took limelight during the event.
- In the 2nd Forest Day celebration held in the city of Poznan, Poland, it brought more than 900 participants to the event. Importance of forest ecosystems, interdependence of animals, plants and microorganisms and together they providing carbon sequestration was discussed in the event.
- All the delegates have reiterated the importance of building the knowledge on sustainable forest management and developing a climate policy with discussion with forest stakeholders.
- In the 3rd Forest Day held at Copenhagen, Denmark, it was attended by more than 1500 delegates and the main goal was to ensure design and implementation of forest-related climate mitigation and adaptation measures under consideration in the Climate Change Agreement are effective, efficient and equitable. Major funding took place to start the events to save forests in this event.
Several themes have been chosen for the International Day of Forests over the years
- In the year 2017, the theme was “Forests and Energy.”
- In the year 2018, the theme was “Forests and Sustainable Cities.”
- In the year 2020, the theme was “Forests and Biodiversity: Too precious to lose.”