World Wildlife Day 2021 and SDG 15

 World Wildlife Day is annually observed on the 3rd of March. The theme for WWD 2021 is "Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet" which dovetails beautifully into the 15th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 15): Life on Land. Linking forests and livelihoods and syncing people and planet is vital step to ecosystem restoration which is the theme of 2021-30: declared the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration.

Many vital forests, especially rainforests highly at-risk frontlines in the war against climate change are being destroyed as local communities haven't been made stakeholders and shareholders in the survival of the biodiversity hotspot. We need economic innovations like the payment for ecosystem services (PES) model adopted by Farmers for Forests.  It truly exemplifies the spirit of "Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet" while enabling Life on Land: 

"Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. A flourishing life on land is the foundation for our life on this planet."

Forest fires both natural and those set by encroachers and miscreants are a major hurdle to survival of forests. While the forest fires in Australia, the Amazon and the haze-making ones in the rainforests of Southeast Asia make news more immediately, the ones in our backyard, like the fire in Simlipal Tiger Reserve located in Mayurbhaj in the Indian state of Odisha is less well-known yet equally devastating for at-risk wildlife including India's national animal. 

Odisha's Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj has been burning for the last 10 days, and it is only now that Indian media and the government have woken up to the news. https://t.co/kYKaeE3zg6#simlipal #mayurbhanj #odisha #tigers #forestfire pic.twitter.com/G5AWTYlBKX

— Green Humour (@thetoonguy) March 4, 2021

Livelihoods need to be linked to protecting forests in order to make protecting the planet profitable to the people living in the laws of poverty alongside forests. Asoka changemaker Muthu Velayutham's efforts has always addressed this dichotomy and his latest venture Vaigai Flora Botanical Gardens in the outskirts of Madurai, a rich spread of vital native species forest home to vibrant biodiversity of flora and fauna. 

There are many initiatives restoring ecosystems and forests fragmented by tea plantations and coffee estates. These need to be popularized and scaled up so that we can fight poverty and climate change while ensuring that life on land thrives (SDG 1, SDG 13, SDG 15) hence ensuring the triumph of the WWD 2021 theme.

Guest Post 2: Save Water

2nd Guest Post by Venkatesh R.

[Editor's Note: Drought and Flood-Drought cycles and fresh water scarcity are the plagues of the 21st century. Be it in urban or rural areas access to safe drinking water is an indicator of development and ease of living. Venkat shares with us some means to improve water quality and water levels wherever you may be.]
 

Bamboo as Conduits of Rainwater Harvesting

Simple ways of handling the rain water can reduce and improve the ground water level. With rain being inconsistent, it’s important to save the water that is available. The simple idea of having bamboo with holes around its length can help in sending the water to a longer distance beneath the surface of the earth. In the conventional houses we are having cement based floors and even in roads the water stagnates. If the roads are made with slopes and if we can have the bamboo at particular intervals the water instead of getting stagnated on the roads and houses gets passed on to the bamboo setup and can improve the ground water level. In villages as well this can be followed up.

At the end learn and share and encourage to participate on SDG goals:

 Encourage children to think metaphorically, the nature has an answer; we need to put it as a concept and concept in action by spreading to school and colleges.

Water conservation can turn a wasteland into wonderland as demonstrated at Aravalli Institute of Management at Kaprada village, Rajasthan:

Forest in the City

Trees roots do act like pipes. One can plant trees between the actual road and service roads, i.e., before the platform. Trees regulate the temperature; the same can be done on agricultural land as well. Street lights are way taller than trees so I don't think it may affect the lighting. One may prefer to plant trees that grows to a certain limit be it vertical or sideways. The amount of money spent in garbage or water problem one can address it with trees by pruning it periodically. Nature does have solution; only man-made products are creating the issue. If one can replicate natural systems, life on  earth will survive for much longer. All the ecosystems plant, insect etc. are interconnected when one specie dies other species as well gets affected or the food chain itself gets changed.

This  44-page technical report compiled in 2014 by IISC provides an exhaustive list of “Tree species for planting on medians and road avenues,”and can be downloaded as a PDF.

Down To Earth documents the creation of a Food Forest and an elaborate water and native seed conservation system created in Nayagarh district of Odisha by Sabarmatee and her father Radha Mohan through the trust Sambav.

Guest Contributor Bio

Venkatesh R. is a Science and Social issues blogger with 10+ years of experience in the IT industry. Venkat is on a mission to create a better world for children. Venkat has won the "Beyond the Armchair" challenge conducted by the Red Elephant Foundation (REF), has contributed a number of articles in Voices of Youth, and has shared a number of ideas in climatecolab.org innovation labs, UNHSCR, GPY2015 and Openideo forums for the past 6 years. His writings and ideas can be accessed at: http://vramanusocialthoughts.blogspot.com/ (Social Issues); https://fissionminded.blogspot.com/ (His writings to bring a change in society through art as a medium); Science Blogs: http://randomthoughtsofvramanu.blogspot.com/  https://vramanu.blogspot.com/