International Biodiversity Day

International Day for Biological Diversity is being held on the 22^nd of May and the theme this year is ‘Be Part of the Plan’. The idea behind this is that everyone from government officials to businesses and individuals, need to play a role in STOPPING and REVERSING the loss of biodiversity.

Quickly, before we go any further, what is biodiversity? And why is it so important? According to National Geographic, biodiversity is “the variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi”. Biodiversity is vital as all living things are interconnected and provide food, water, medicine, shelter and much more. This basically means that if there is less biodiversity then all living things have a lower chance of survival, and a decline begins… EEK!

In Earth’s history, we’re talking billions of years, biodiversity has increased and decreased due to natural processes, personally gutted we never got to see a T Rex. However, human activities such as habitat destruction, pollution, and overuse of resources, have accelerated this decline. Currently, extinction is estimated to be 100X the natural rate – and it’s pretty much all down to us.

Now this may all seem doom and gloom but if you think about it, if we’re the ones causing decline of biodiversity, therefore we can be the ones that stop and reverse it!

To do this you could:

• Grow a wild patch in your garden where nature lets loose – this also means less gardening at the weekend, now that’s a win-win!
• Concoct your own compost patch from food waste.
• Help our yellow and black striped pals (bees of course) by planting nectar rich wildflowers.
• Plant local flowers in your garden to increase your areas biodiversity!

Here at the Cheeky Panda, it is part of our mission to boost biodiversity. Instead of using toilet paper which comes from trees that are cut down (big frown from biodiversity) we use bamboo. This grows 30x faster than trees, absorbs 30% more CO2, produces 35% more oxygen AND the harvesting method leaves the root structure in place, so the plant is not lost.

So, this May 22nd, no matter how big or small your contribution, educate and act to help get biodiversity back on top!