STBHF Observes United Nations World Environmental Day

On this day of 5th June, 2023 the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) observes United Nations World Environment Day. The UN World Environment Day has become a global forum to discuss issues surrounding the conservation and safety of the environment, and it is a day that is celebrated across the world.

On the 5th of June 1972, leaders convened for the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the first major global conference on international environmental issues. That day marked also a major milestone in the development of international environmental law: the Conference’s outcome document, the Stockholm Declaration, was the first international agreement to acknowledge the intrinsic connection between ecological management, sustainable economic development, and human well-being.

For over 50 years now, there have been lots of international legal instruments related to the environment, and an overall increased awareness of states and civil society of the disastrous effects of deforestation, biodiversity loss, and global warming. Nevertheless, our environment is in greater peril than before, and the significance of this day has only grown. Since 1970, global warming has accelerated at an increasing rate. Biodiversity is under threat, as nearly one million species are threatened with extinction within decades. And the growing frequency and severity of natural disasters have put state capacity under greater strain and human lives at greater risk.

While ecological degradation, pollution, and climate change affect us all, it disproportionately affects people living in poor communities and marginalization, particularly women and youth, and those living in lower-income countries and fragile states, who have contributed the least to climate change. This impact is also distributed unequally across time, as future generations will cope with the consequences of present-day choices.

In these challenging times, good governance and the rule of law are critical to safeguarding our Earth and its ecosystems, on which human communities and livelihoods directly depend. There is already ample evidence that the collapse of healthy and biodiversity ecosystems has widened inequalities and undermined the stability and prosperity of societies, especially those that are the worst-equipped to resist such shocks.

The Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) endorses the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021- 2030), which focuses on the mitigation and reversal of dangerous ecological decline. As a member of the Global Waste Cleaning Network (GWCN), we advocate sustainable approaches to environmental preservation and climate resilient development models that empower citizens and communities and balance the needs of the present with the rights of the future.

The Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) is determined to contribute to this effort. Robust, effective legal institutions are critical to achieving these innovations. We support the development of laws and regulations that serve to mainstream biodiversity, promote conservation, and empower civil society and communities to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources. While ecological degradation exacerbates conflict and migration, we call on stakeholders at local, regional and international platforms to work towards reducing the key drivers of these crises, and to advance the necessary conditions for peace and security through a combination of legal empowerment and institutional development approaches.

As we observe United Nations World Environmental Day, today, 5th June, 2023 we call for honest partnership with professional institutions and civil society to strengthen the customary and non-customary rights of climate-vulnerable groups to land and other natural resources, and to ensure that they can participate in and benefit from a just use of their countries’ natural wealth. We cannot reverse environmental degradation overnight. But we believe we can provide timely and much-needed assistance to those at greatest risk from its negative impacts in the meantime, while working towards stopping and repairing the damage being done to our environment. In a post COVID-19 pandemic, the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation stands ready to contribute to help build and maintain a healthy environment for future generations.

HAPPY UNITED NATIONS WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL DAY!

Sender:

Ambassador Foday M. Kamara
Acting Country Representative
The Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation
For and on behalf of the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF)