This World Earth Day, Islamic Relief is backing calls for greater protection for the planets’ species and highlighting how the organization is responding.
In Islamic Relief’s policy stance on biodiversity, issued on April 22, it is highlighted the need for urgent action to tackle the accelerated rate of species extinction. Many species are already extinct and countless others face the same fate.
Biological diversity – or biodiversity – is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms the animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and other intertwined life forms within any ecosystem.
Climate change, alongside factors like land degradation and habitat loss, is emerging as a top threat to wildlife around the globe. Scientists are warning of the continuing and imminent loss of species of plants, insects animals and marine life.
The ocean provides most of the life-supporting environment on the planet. It hosts a large portion of biodiversity, plays a major role in climate regulation, sustains a vibrant economy and contributes to food security worldwide.
Severe impacts on key marine ecosystems and ecosystem services are projected in response to future global warming and concurrent ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and sea-level rise.
Islamic Relief recognises that poverty and environmental degradation need to be tackled together to alleviate the suffering of the world’s poorest people in the long term, and to be true to Islamic teachings. Fortified by God-given duties towards stewardship and responsibilities to protect the environment, and through our programmes and organizational behavior, Islamic Relief can do much to tackle environmental degradation.
“We believe that humankind has the responsibility to maintain the balance and proportion that God has built into the Creation, and that much suffering is being caused by disruption of that balance and proportion. We endorse the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change which states that because of human action we are in danger of ending life as we know it on our planet. Islamic Relief believes that a rich biological heritage, a stable climate and clean water are as important to communities as their material needs.”
Progress has been made through Islamic Relief Worldwide’s Climate Change Policy and the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change.
Original source: Islamic Relief
Published on 22 April 2019
