World Nature Conservation Day 2021

This day is annually celebrated on the 28th of July to raise awareness about protecting the little natural resources we have left and bring awareness to the importance of the conservation of nature.  World Nature Conservation Day acknowledges that a healthy environment is a foundation for a stable and healthy society.

The exact meaning of conservation means the ‘prevention of wasteful use of a resource and that is exactly what the day aims to do. Although this is a year-round effort, world nature conservation day helps to bring to light the wastefulness and the damaging effects we humans make on our planet. Nature Conservation Day is celebrated to raise awareness about nature’s conservation and stress the importance of preserving our natural resources. To ensure the well-being of our future generations, it is important that we work towards a sustainable environment.
Some people might just think of Earth’s natural resources centred around fossil fuels, but Earth’s natural resources include air, minerals, plants, soil, water, and wildlife. Conservation is the care and protection of these resources so that they can be preserved for future generations. This includes maintaining a diversity of species, genes, ecosystems, and functions of the environment.

World Nature Conservation Day History

The history and origin of the World Nature Conservation Day and how long this day has been celebrated is unknown. Still, the main aim of celebrating it on 28 July is to come together to support our natural resources as there are several threats to nature like deforestation, illegal wildlife trade, pollution, using plastics, chemicals, etc. Earth provides all of our basic necessities to live like water, air, soil, minerals, trees, animals, food, and without the proper care and conservation of all these things, they will diminish, and so will us humans. 

Conservation is not to be mixed up with preservation. Although the two terms normally come hand in hand and are similar, they are two different forms of protection of nature. Whilst conservation seeks the sustainable use of nature by humans for activities such as hunting, logging, or mining, while preservation means protecting nature from human use.

So it is our duty of care to help protect our resources for the next generation, and the generation after that and so forth. Conservation of nature is essential. Even scientists have also warned us about mass extinctions in the near future. Several documentaries about nature show that resources are being wasted. Due to global warming, the temperature is increasing day by day, storms and sea levels are also increasing, and freshwater glaciers are melting, threatening lives. We are connected to each other with natural resources. It is being abundantly made clear the threat that our natural world is facing due to the increasing unsustainable practices.

Let us come together and make an effort to contribute to the local, national, or global levels in conserving nature. It will benefit not only our present generation but also future generations. Whatever we do, big or small, can negatively or positively affect our globe, so we need to make sure we are doing our part correctly.

Below are some ways you can help our natural resources, and some of these things are as easy as simple habits to implement in your daily life to make a huge difference in conserving the environment. Only the government and big companies don’t need to conserve the environment. Everyone can participate and conserve nature, several ways in which we can conserve the environment, such as:

Sponsoring an Animal

One of the best ways to help our dwindling species is to help sponsor an animal. Not only are our species dying out because of indirect harm caused by us humans, such as the melting icecap and the deforestation of their habitats some of the world’s best loved species are being deliberately poached by widespread and dangerous criminal networks. To name just a few of those endangered species;

• Orangutan 
• Rhino
• Amur Leopard
• Polarbear
• Red Panda 
• Great White Shark 
• To see the full list head here.

You can visit WWF here to help donate and adopt animals,  which are facing worldwide endangerment.

Recycling

Try to buy reusable and biodegradable products as much as possible. Recycle everything if it is possible. There are also three essential words about the conservation of the environment to reduce, recycle, and reuse whenever possible. First, throwing out things such as batteries in the correct way or considering buying and using rechargeable batteries, as we know that batteries are dangerous for the environment, it is better to use rechargeable batteries.

Reduce Waste

It is necessary to reduce the consumption of water. Even subtle things such as taking showers over baths or timing your showers can help go a long way. One big way is to purchase a reusable water bottle and refill at home or local sprouts instead of feeding into more plastic consumption. 

Diet

A meat-free diet will reduce your carbon footprint massively,  since it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, global acidification and eutrophication, farmland usage, and water consumption and thus help conserve more natural resources. 

If you already are, this is a bonus, but if you are not, taking up a veggie/vegan diet while away can help offset your carbon footprint as meat and dairy account for 58% of emissions out of the total 26% of global emissions coming from food. 

One way to help on your step to become more plant based/vegan is to buy supplements and powders from a supplement business. We recommended using MYVEGAN, not only are they Uk’s no one online based vegan nutrition brand, but they have joined with us to help offset their carbon footprint and planted over 1,200 trees with us. 

Supporting Sustainable Businesses

When purchasing products, always go for the more eco friendly one. Be careful to do your research as a lot of brands claim sustainability but actually mislead consumers. You can get an array of eco-friendly products from clothes brands Ground Truth beer brands like Hammer Beer and even condiments such as Rubies in the Rubble.

Reduce The Use Of Electricity

Remember to always turn off items when you’re done using them and to make sure to plug the socket at the wall, or even better yet switch to smart home appliances this means you can control the time and the length of time the electric is on for. Using energy saving light bulbs instead of normal etc.

Offset Carbon Footprint

Travel is essential to making this world a better place. Let’s make it sustainable. 

On average, every human being produces 12 tonnes of Co2 per year. One tree is able, through its lifetime, to offset and store 1 tonne of Co2. By travelling, this only adds up more. Check out our tree donation page here for the next time you want to offset your carbon footprint.

Not only do we offer this but we also pride ourselves in our Plant and Protect scheme. To plant and protect means to plant trees in respect to their environment and then put in place resources and workers to help protect and conserve these trees for the rest of their lifespan. We have a lot of plant and protect projects currently undergoing this year if you would like to support these, check them out here. 

Grow Your Own!

Vegetables that are available are often mass-produced, and to do this are grown with chemicals and pesticides, which are really toxic for the environment and animals. So why don’t you try planting your own vegetables, herbs and seasonal fruits in your garden or even window sill, this way you will know for sure that they are chemical-free! 

Composting

Avoid waste and littering, i know this is easier said than done but it can be achieved and one way to do this better is by fully utilizing composting.

Quit Smoking

Do not smoke, or if you already do try cutting down or quitting. Smoking is injurious to human health, but it also endangers the health of the environment. When e-cigarette and cigarette waste isn’t disposed of properly, it makes its way into the environment, where it ends up polluting water, air, and land with toxic chemicals, heavy metals.

Not only that but the cultivation and curing of tobacco, manufacturing, packing and shipping, further demands are placed on fuel for this which depletes already scarce fossil fuel reserves. 

Become A Climate Advocate

Spread the word by speaking to your friends and family about conservation. You can do this in person or by using your social media platforms to help spread the word about conserving nature, the environment, and energy. 

You can also check out our forest blog, which dives into more tips and tricks on how to respect the environment and climate we are in today.

Avoid Unsustainable Palm Oil

Image Source:  Earth 911

Palm Oil is massively used in a lot of products we use in our everyday lives that most people are unaware of, in products such as foods and cleaning products and even cosmetics. Unfortunately, palm oil is very destructive and extremely bad for the planet. Palm oil production is said to have been responsible for about 8% of the world’s deforestation between 1990 and 2008. It also reportedly is bad for human health as the high levels of saturated fat in which can affect cardiovascular health. 

Every hour 300 football fields of precious remaining forest are being ploughed across South East Asia to make way for new palm oil plantations due to the growing demand. 

An innovative way is to let your favourite brands know about the disappointment in them using palm oil, this has happened before where brands have heard the voice of the people, and they have removed palm oil from their products or switched to sustainable palm oil farms.  

If you want to support brands that use sustainable palm oil, why don’t you check out Vego who make vegan chocolate products that taste similar to the brand Ferrero but without the use of unsustainable palm oil.

Beware of Animal Tourism

Wildlife tourism and visiting animal attractions on holiday are as popular as ever, but unfortunately, tourists can often unintentionally have negative impacts on the animals they visit. Wildlife attractions lure people from around the world into being with exotic animals and is a lucrative segment of the booming global travel industry. Shockingly more than half a million wild animals are used for tourist entertainment. This is just the ones legally registered and not the off books ones… most of the time in these place animals have a horrendous condition in which they live and our treated and a lot of the time taken from their natural habitat and families to solely make amusements for humans such as taking selfies etc not only is it a corrupt practice but by supporting unethical animal tourism you are in turn driving demand for these animals to be captured and enslaved. 

Support Green Travel

This may seem like a not so obvious choice but travelling less is the best way to travel more sustainably. One of the simplest ways to cut back on emissions and conserve natural resources is to travel and fly less often. This could be from chopping down how many international trips you take to travelling somewhere more locally or simply staying at home for a staycation.

But also you could just travel to a Green Destination. Remember, when picking a place to visit, you want to spend your money on the economies of a country that actually cares about our planet and actively tries to conserve our natural resources.  

If you want to learn more about travelling sustainably to help conserve our natural resources check out our 13 Ways To Travel Sustainably Blog.

We hope you have enjoyed our article and found some of our tips in how you can do your part this world conservation day. We hope to continue our efforts at Gone West and help people become more environmentally aware and help offset carbon footprints within the UK, so excitingly, we are opening up the opportunity to the public to invest in us! (Capital at risk. Approved by Seedrs.)

By investing in us, you are making an investment for yourself and our planet. If you are interested in this, please visit us on Seedrs to pre-register before we go live. 

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