WORLD SCIENCE FORUM ON GLOBAL CHALLENGES HELD IN BUDAPEST
Baku, November 5 (AZERTAC). Steps to be taken as a response to global changes and challenges must be based on scientific facts and not on political or economic interests or dogmas, the general director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) told the World Science Forum in Budapest on Thursday.
Saving planet Earth means not only to protect the beauties and diversity but to also conserve conditions that allow for mankind "to thrive, survive and make progress," said Julia Marton-Lefevre.
It is the role of science to give answers to people to the question of what they can do against undesired developments, the director of Hungarian descent said. She pointed out that people must understand that individual ecosystems that exist are intertwined in a million ways, the nature of which bonds have still not been fully revealed, yet biological diversity is the fundament of nature. Many species on the Earth are facing extinction, one-third of the amphibians, a quarter of the mammals and 12 percent of birds may die out. More and more forests and other habitats vanish, those are changes that have been impacting the quality of our life, drinking water and food, she said. "Rich or poor, West or East, young or old, a scientist or an artist - that does not matter, we all are entirely dependent on nature," said Marton-Lefevre, stressing the importance of cohesion of sciences and political opinion-leaders in decisions effecting the society. She noted that the United Nations declared 2010 the year of biodiversity, which would call for global actions.
IUCN is the world`s oldest and largest global environmental network. It has more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.
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