TEHRAN (Iran News) – The national environment week will be celebrated on June 6-12 under the theme of “People-based, smart and technological environment”, concurrent with the World Environment Day 2022, IRIB reported on Wednesday.
It will be held under the theme “Only One Earth”, highlighting the need to live sustainably in harmony with nature by bringing transformative changes – through policies and our choices – towards cleaner, greener lifestyles. Only One Earth was the motto for the 1972 Stockholm Conference; 50 years on, the motto holds true – this planet is our only home, whose finite resources humanity must safeguard.
The year 2022 marks 50 years since the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment – the 1972 Stockholm Conference that led to the creation of UNEP and designating June 5 every year as World Environment Day.
Iran also marks the day during a week, each day of the week has been assigned a special theme this year as follows:
Monday, June 6: “Environment, Regional Diplomacy, Climate Change, Water and Dust Management”
Tuesday, June 7: “Environment, Biodiversity and Endangered Plant and Animal Species”
Wednesday, June 8: “Environment of the Sea, Wetlands, and Watersheds (World Oceans Day)”
Thursday, June 9: “Environment, Industry, Waste and Sustainable Knowledge-Based Development”
Friday, June 10: “Environment, Religious Teachings, Social Responsibility, Culture, and Media”
Saturday, June 11: “Environment, environmentalist, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom”
Sunday, June 12: “Environment, New Technologies, Contributions, and Public Participation”
Biological diversity protection in Iran
To preserve the existing biodiversity over the wide geographic expanse of Iran, four types of areas have been designated for preservation and protection, including, national parks, wildlife refuges, protected areas, and natural national monuments. In 1997, the DOE held supervision over 7,563,983 hectares of such areas.
Currently, the supervised areas reached about 18.5 million hectares, including, 30 national parks, 170 protected areas, 45 wildlife refuges, and 37 national natural monuments.
Iran has a high diversity of species due to geographical conditions, climatic diversity, huge water resources of the Caspian Sea in the north and the Persian Gulf, and the Sea of Oman in the south.
According to the latest studies, about 1,300 species of vertebrates, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and aquatic fish, about 30,000 species of invertebrates, and 8,000 species of plants have been identified in the country.
Unfortunately, over the past two decades, human activities have led to alarming degradation of ecosystems, deletion of genes, species, and biological capabilities; Human threats to biodiversity have accelerated the most over the past 50 years over the entire history of human life.
